SCC Threatens to Stage Nationwide Protests as Cabinet Set to Discuss New Wages Hike

The Syndicate Coordination Committee threatened to stage a nationwide protest on Thursday if the Cabinet failed to approve the new wages increase for the public sector employees.

“Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed that the government will approve the new salaries hike, in particular, after it managed to provide new revenues for the state’s treasury,” head of the private schools teachers association Nehme Mahfoud said after holding a meeting with the premier at the Grand Serail.

He told reporters that the SCC will escalate its actions if the increase wasn’t approved by the cabinet during the session that will be held at the Baabda Palace on Wednesday.

“We hope that we won’t have to escalate, we will remain positive as long as the cabinet is,” Mahfoud added.

For his part, Head of Association of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Hanna Gharib criticized during a sit-in at the premises of the Education Ministry the draft law that the cabinet will discuss on Wednesday.

He noted that it’s not the deal that the SCC agreed on with the ministerial committee tasked with studying the new scale for the public sector and Miqati as Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi’s proposal contradicts the agreement.

“This directly threatened their credibility,” Gharib told protesters.

However, al-Safadi told reporters on Tuesday that “there are several sources to fund the new wages boost, and I have suggested a number of sources, similarly did the ministerial committee.”

The minister told reporters after holding a meeting with Miqati that the suggestions will be tackled during the cabinet session on Wednesday.

Media sources said on Monday that the government plans to boost the treasury’s revenue to cover the expenses of salaries increase through several proposals including the implementation of a hike on taxes on land parcels and sea properties.

The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, has staged several strikes in the past months to pressure the government into adopting the new wages scale.

The government decided to increase the salaries of the teachers after a wage raise was granted to the private sector in January.