Price Index Committee Fails to Resolve Wage Hike Dispute as Nahhas Set to Propose his Plan at Cabinet
The price index committee meeting failed on Thursday to reach an agreement over the wage hike.
Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas announced that he will propose his plan in cabinet “because the government is responsible for implementing the law. Anything other than that does not concern us.”
The meeting included Nahhas, the General Labor Confederation, Economic Committees, and Syndical Coordination Committee.
Nahhas added after the meeting: “We will perform our duties and refer this issue to cabinet at the appropriate time.”
“It is responsible for determining the brackets, cost of living, and how the wage hike can be applied,” he explained.
He denied that he had proposed a transportation allowance and other benefits.
Informed sources revealed that Nahhas’ fourth wage hike proposal includes a hundred percent wage increase to workers whose income ranges between LL500,000 and 1,000,000 and a 25 percent increase to those who earn over LL 1 million.
Nahhas revealed that he had requested before the gatherers at Thursday’s price index meeting to present a legal mechanism that can implement their proposals.
The GLC demanded that minimum wage be raised to LL 1,250,000, while the Economic Committees renewed their commitment to the agreement that was reached at the Baabda Palace.
The agreement, which was sponsored by Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Baabda Palace, set the minimum wage at LL675,000 – a sum that excludes the transportation allowance.
Nahhas insists on setting the minimum wage at LL800,000 including the transportation allowance, which is also approved by the Syndical Coordination Committee.
“We are only concerned with raising the minimum wage and the increase in brackets,” stressed the labor minister.
Meanwhile, the head of the Beirut Merchant Association Nicolas Shammas said after price index committee meeting: “We are counting on the government and parliament to devise a method to implement the Baabda agreement as soon as possible.”
The head of the GLC Ghassan Ghosn stated after the meeting that the wage hike dispute has not been resolved.
He added that Nahhas deemed the Baabda agreement between the Economic Committees and the GLC as “illegal and nonbinding” and he is therefore not obligated to commit to it.
He added however that he will support the agreement seeing as the union was one of the sides that approved it.
Ghosn demanded however a hundred percent wage increase “because of the hardships the people endured because of the high cost of living.”
He hoped that the labor minister would convince the concerned sides in government of the proposals, adding that the GLC will commit to the Baabda agreement until a hundred percent raise is approved.
A meeting for the price index committee called by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas failed on Wednesday to reach an agreement between Nahhas, the Economic Committee, the General Labor Confederation, and the Syndical Coordination Committee.
Earlier on Thursday, Speaker Nabih Berri expressed optimism concerning the wage hike.
“We’re at the final phases and the discussions are good,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.
The increase on brackets had remained as one of the contentious issues in the wage hike.
The Economic Committees had met on Thursday morning to coordinate their stances, agreeing to hold onto the Baabda deal and describing the agreement as “historical” between the two production parties.
They stressed that the deal “should be fortified and maintained.”
Nahhas refuses to sign the deal between the two production parties for lacking the “legal terms,” he told the daily. “Their agreement doesn’t mean that the deal is in the best interest of employees and it’s not above the law.”
Head of the private schools teachers association Nehme Mahfoud told An Nahar that the Syndical Coordination Committee insists on using “the percentage of increase on the brackets (instead of the lump sum mentioned in the Baabda deal), while the transportation allowance term must be referred to the parliament to approve it.”
He didn't participate in the price index committee's meeting on Thursday as he threatened earlier "not to participate if no major development happened," according to As Safir.
For his part, Head of the Association of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Hanna Gharib told al- Joumhouria newspaper on Thursday that the deal between the GLC and the Economic Committees aims at “infringing the earned rights of the workers and teachers.”
Ghosn told As Safir newspaper that Nahhas “insists” on moving back to point zero, criticizing the minister’s plan that was approved by the Shura Council.
The Council approved on Wednesday the new wage hike proposal made by Nahhas, who didn’t put his proposal to vote at the cabinet yet, on condition of introducing amendments to it.
Nicolas Shammas, the head of the Beirut Merchant Association, said that Nahhas was pushing the parties during the price index committee on Wednesday to adopt his plan ignoring the deal between the two production parties.
“We refuse to modify any point in the deal,” As Safir newspaper quoted him as saying.
Source: Naharnet
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