Economic Committees to Boycott Economic Dialogue after PM Schedules Cabinet Session for Monday

The Economic Committees criticized on Saturday Prime Minister Najib Miqati's decision to hold a cabinet session on Monday aimed at approving the new wage scale, announcing the “failure of the economic dialogue in light of the premier's unilateral action.”

They said that they will “boycott upcoming economic dialogue sessions and will keep its meetings open in order to follow up on developments and take the necessary measures to save the national economy.”

“This government is one-of-a-kind in that it has deliberately or inadvertently targeted the country's economy,” they added in a statement.

The premier's scheduling of a cabinet session is a violation of the pledges he made to the Economic Committees during which he vowed to ensure its participation in finding a solution to the funding of the new wage scale, continued the statement.

The Economic Committees stated that it is unfortunate that the prime minister yielded to the Syndicate Coordination Committees' threats to resort to street action.

The statement renewed warnings of the negative repercussions approving the wage scale will have on Lebanon.

“The government is willing to lead the country on to a dangerous monetary, financial, and economic path,” it noted.

“Given Miqati's announcement, the Economic Committees now view the so-called economic dialogue as no more than a waste of time,” it stressed.

“The committees will not allow anyone to exploit their openness to seek the interests of the country,” it declared.

Moreover, it asked: “What is the use of referring the new wage scale to a parliament that is living its last days ahead of the parliamentary elections?”

The Economic Committees therefore reiterated their rejection of the new wage scale, “which international authorities and Lebanon's Central Bank said would lead to negative consequences on the country.”

In addition, they questioned the cabinet's decision to approve the new wage scale in the absence of a state budget since 2005.

For his part, Miqati questioned the Economic Committees' decision to boycott the dialogue sessions “before even studying the amendments made to the new wage scale proposal.”

He deemed the decision as as “impulsive and hasty.”

“The latest amendments of the wage scale indicate that the Lebanese economy will be able to withstand its repercussions seeing as it does not include any new tax or investment measures,” he explained.

Furthermore, he rejected the Economic Committees' holding of the government responsible for the consequences of its decision.

“The government is keen on adopting procedures that will not harm the economy,” he stressed.

“We only follow our convictions and we do not yield to any threat,” he declared.

“It is shameful to say that the economic dialogue sessions were only aimed at wasting time, especially since all of its participants praised the seriousness of the meetings in tackling economic, financial, and social affairs,” continued the premier.

“No other decision in the history of the Lebanese republic has been studied as thoroughly as the new wage scale, especially over the aspects of its funding,” Miqati said.

The Economic Committees, a grouping of the country's businessmen and owners of major firms, had continuously reiterated that they would reject any decision taken by cabinet on the new wage scale, warning that the government's decision to boost the salaries of public employees would "inflict major losses on the public and private sectors."

On the other hand, the SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, had staged numerous strikes to pressure the government to refer the scale to parliament for approval.

The government had failed to do so, saying that it first needed to come up with the sources of the funding of the scale.

Miqati announced on Friday that cabinet will convene on Monday to address the issue as the SCC was scheduled to hold a strike on Tuesday to protest the cabinet's delay in referring the issue to parliament.

The SCC did not call off Tuesday's strike.