Wage Scale Discussions Hit Snag before they Start

March 14 alliance lawmakers boycotted a meeting for the joint parliamentary committees on Tuesday to protest a decision for Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan to chair the session.

There was no lack of quorum despite the boycott.

Speaker Nabih Berri had tasked Kanaan to chair the meeting over the absence of his deputy MP Farid Makari, who is currently abroad.

According to the parliament's by-laws, the meeting of the joint committees should be chaired by the speaker or his deputy.

The MPs discussed the controversial wage scale on Tuesday.

The parliament in October returned a draft-law on the raise to the joint committees for further discussions after it failed in several rounds to approve it.

The MPs are bickering on the value of the pay hike and ways to fund it.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Jamal al-Jarrah told a press conference at the parliament that his bloc did not have a personal problem with Kanaan.

“We just want the by-laws to be respected,” he said.

Another controversy linked to the wage scale erupted after several lawmakers rejected its endorsement in the absence of a state budget for 2015.

Al-Jarrah said that he asked Kanaan to adjourn Tuesday's meeting and call on the government to refer the budget to parliament to discuss pending issues.

“Al-Mustaqbal is ready to adopt the wage scale and the budget as soon as possible,” he said.

But Kanaan said that the lawmakers, who attended the meeting, considered the joint committees as the only party entitled to discuss the wage scale.

Kanaan said that MPs agreed that the current meeting was a continuation of the past meetings on the raise, which allowed him to chair the talks if Berri failed to do so.

"We need a state budget but the mission of the joint committees currently is to discuss the wage scale," he added.

Hizbullah MP Ali Fayyad also told reporters at the parliament that the meetings of the joint parliamentary committees should remain open.

Fayyad rejected linking the wage scale with the state budge although Jarrah claimed that the move was made by Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil.

“This is unacceptable,” he said, adding “I am afraid the intention is to obstruct (the adoption) of the pay hike.”

G.K.

H.K.