Cabinet to Avert SCC Protest by Holding Session Monday
The cabinet will hold an extraordinary session on Monday to avert a decision by the Syndicate Coordination Committee to protest the government's failure to refer the new wage scale to the parliament.
The cabinet was set to hold a meeting Tuesday, however, Prime Minister Najib Miqati told reporters at the Grand Serail that the session will be held ahead of the strike to avoid it.
The SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, called for a demonstration on Tuesday to protest the cabinet's procrastination over the public employees' demands.
“The session will be held at 4:00 p.m. at the Baabda Palace to end discussions over the new salary scale and refer it to the parliament,” Miqati said.
The cabinet has been stalling in finding sources to fund the scale that was approved last year, leading to growing differences with the SCC, which has been accusing it of negligence.
However, the government argues that it is delaying the decision on the funding in an attempt to thoroughly discuss plans to boost the treasury's revenue to cover the expenses of the salaries boost.
The state treasury will have more than $1.2 billion to cover over the presence of 180,000 public sector employees including military personnel.
“Strikes have become a trend,” Economy and Trade Minister Nicolas Nahhas told al-Joumhouria newspaper earlier on Friday.
The minister revealed that the government reached common ground over the resources to fund the new salary boost.
“We are waiting for the Public Works and Transportation and the Finance Ministries to express their opinion over the resources we agreed on,” Nahhas said.
For his part, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stressed that the new wage scale is a “rightful” demand for public employees.
“The cabinet's failure to approve the new wage scale indicates the cabinet's failure to resolve the crises hitting the public sector,” he said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.
However, the minister expressed pessimism over the government's ability to approve the funding resources during Tuesday's session.
Sources close to Miqati told the newspaper that the only solution to resolve the matter is to decrease the burden and accumulations of retirement pensions, increasing productivity in the public sector, increasing working hours and holding those responsible for corruption accountable.
The SCC rejects any decrease over the retirees' pensions.
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