SCC Holds Another Protest, Doubts Miqati's Intentions on Wage Scale

Head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib doubted on Saturday the government's intentions in funding the wage scale for the public sector and demanded Prime Minister Najib Miqati to dedicate for it a cabinet session next week.

“It is our right to know how the government will fund the wage scale,” Gharib said at a sit-in organized by the Syndicate Coordination Committee near the finance ministry's revenues building in the area of Beshara al-Khoury in Beirut.

He reiterated that the SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, “rejected funding the scale at the expense of the poor and those with limited incomes.”

“We won't allow the government to harm our rights under the slogan of reform,” Gharib said.

His stance was made a day after a ministerial committee approved a series of measures that would increase the state's revenues and introduce reforms to the public sector in an attempt to fund the salary raise.

The measures would be dealt with by cabinet ministers during a session on March 21 under President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace.

But the session has a second item on its agenda, which Gharib described as a “landmine.”

“You promised us that the cabinet session on March 21 would be dedicated to funding the wage scale,” Gharib said addressing Miqati.

“We remind you of your commitment to the SCC,” Gharib said. “Why did you put the formation of the authority that would oversee the elections on the agenda of the session on March 21?”

“The wage scale should be the only item,” he stressed.

Gharib called for largescale protests on March 21 to put pressure on the government to refer the scale to parliament for adoption.