Long-Awaited Wage Scale Referred to Parliament

Prominent leaders of the Syndicate Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, confirmed on Friday that a wage scale has been referred to the parliament for adoption.

In remarks to radio stations, Head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib and the president of the private school teachers association, Nehme Mahfoud, said the scale, which was endorsed by the government in March following weeks of protests across Lebanon, was referred to parliament after President Michel Suleiman signed the decree.

The signature took time after Suleiman's advisers found accounting mistakes in the scale and returned the draft-law to Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi to amend it.

The move prompted public teachers to threaten a boycott of official exam corrections if the salary scale was not referred to the parliament by June 22.

Gharib said on Friday that the SCC will decide on whether to back down from the boycott during a meeting it plans to hold next Tuesday.

But Mahfoud warned that the coalition will continue its battle with the parliament to amend some articles that he said were not in the best interest of the public sector employees.