SCC Vows to Return to Strikes if Parliament Delays Endorsing New Wage Scale

The Syndicate Coordination Committee vowed on Friday to stage strikes and take to the streets if the new wage scale wasn't referred to the parliament for approval.

“We give officials one week grace period, utmost, to refer the new salary scale to the national assembly or we will return back to the streets and stage strikes,” Nehme Mahfoud, who heads the private schools teachers association, said in comments to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).

He warned that the SCC will not "stand still" if the matter was delayed, pointing out that the committee “will take to the streets and carry out all the measures that the constitution grants.”

“We have rights,” Mahfoud added.

The syndicate official slammed practices by “some political sides that are delaying the matter.”

For his part, head of Secondary Teachers Associations Hanna Gharib vowed in comments to VDL (93.3) that the public employees will stage strikes anew and obstruct the work of state institutions if “officials broke their promises.”

The joint parliamentary committee is expected to meet on Friday to tackle the controversial issue of new wage scale and refer it with amendments to the parliament for approval.

Former Prime Minister Najib Miqati's cabinet endorsed in 2012 a new salary scale for public employees ending a long dispute that had prompted the SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, to hold several sit-ins and strikes.

President Michel Suleiman signed the decree mid-June 2013 and was referred to the joint parliamentary committee to study it.

Suleiman's signature took time after advisers found accounting mistakes in the scale and returned the draft-law to ex-Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi to amend it.

The wage increase will be retroactive from July 1, 2012.

The endorsement was accompanied by increasing the Value Added Tax on cars, mobile phones, alcohol and other luxury products from 10 to 15 percent to be able to fund the raise.

The state treasury will have more than $1.2 billion to cover as there are over 180,000 public sector employees including military personnel.