Official Exams Results Delayed as SCC Escalates Strike

The Syndicate Coordination Committee lashed out at Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday as it insisted on the premier to meet their demands if they should resume the correction of the official exams.

The public employees staged sit-ins at 10:00 a.m. near several public institutions in an attempt to pressure the cabinet to approve the new wages scale.

“It is a day for the Syndicate’s unity in Lebanon,” the SCC said.

The public sector employees protested several ministries and public institutions including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Environment and the Telecommunications Ministry.

The premier told As Safir newspaper published on Monday that the cabinet will refer the wages scale related to the teachers independently if the parliament delayed the approval of the salaries for the public sector.

Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said during the public employees’ sit-in near the ministry that "there is a glitch in the salaries of public employees."

“The cabinet should protect the syndicate’s unity in the country instead of dividing it,” the head of the Secondary Teachers Association, Hanna Gharib, told As Safir.

He stressed that the teachers will not correct the exams if the cabinet didn’t approve the new wages scale.

Gharib said that the issue is about the teachers’ dignity.

According to the daily, the premier will hold a meeting with a delegation from the SCC, which is a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Grand Serail to address their demands and refer them to the cabinet that will convene later at the Baabda Palace.

Head of the private schools teachers association Nehme Mahfoud held Miqati responsible for the crisis, accusing him of trying to divide the public sector unions in Lebanon.

Concerning the syndicate’s meeting with Education Minister Hassan Diab, Mahfoud said: “We meet daily with the education minister, who voiced his support to our demands, the problem isn’t with him.”

“The problem is with Miqati,” he stressed.

Head of the Public Education Teachers Kamel Shayya said in comments published in As Safir that the teachers “will not back down.”

The SCC boycotted last week the correction of the exams over the government’s failure to include the new wage scale in the state budget.