Wage Scale Draft-Law Back to Joint Committees over Differences

Parliament failed to discuss on Wednesday the wage hike draft-law after Speaker Nabih Berri sent back the bill to the joint parliamentary committees for discussion over differences on the raise.

Berri had earlier warned that he would withdraw the draft-law from the agenda of the parliamentary session if certain parties continued to oppose the bill.

His warning came as private school teachers rallied near the parliament to protest their exclusion from the salary hike. The referral of the hike back to the joint committees was seen as a victory for the protesting teachers.

But it is likely to infuriate private sector teachers, who had been asking for the raise for years.

In remarks carried by local dailies on Wednesday, Berri said: “I have heard negative reactions from some sides in the Syndicate Coordination Committee to the salary scale.”

The draft-law “had taken a long time to prepare and we took the rights of everyone into account,” the speaker, who heads Amal movement, told his visitors.

He said he had received a letter from the Public Secondary School Teachers Association protesting a clause in the bill that elementary and primary teachers were being granted the same wage hike as secondary teachers.

He added that he had been told there were also objections to the draft-law from the military corps.

“I understand the objections but they don't have the right to reject the decision of parliament because it is up to the state, which is responsible for the public sector, to assess the raise for all the (teaching) levels,” Berri told his visitors.

Berri also expressed “understanding” to the demands of the private teachers, but said: “Parliament is legislating only for the public sector.”

The speaker's move on Wednesday came as private school teachers held a rally near parliament in downtown Beirut to protest their exclusion from the raise.

The head of the private school teachers association, Nehme Mahfoud, had called for an open strike and the rally.

“Injustice will push the teachers to remain in the streets,” he warned in remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) on Wednesday.

Mahfoud also said that Berri had previously insisted that he backed equality among teachers.

During the rally, Mahfoud told reporters at Riyad al-Solh Square that the failure to give the private school teachers their rights was aimed at causing divisions among the members of the SCC, which is a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees.

The SCC had been holding demonstrations over the past three years to ask for the wage hike.

"We are only calling for justice and equality," Mahfoud later told demonstrators.

"We hope the issue would be resolved today because failure to do so will drag us to" escalatory measures, he said at the rally, which was attended by Education Minister Elias Bou Saab.

During a speech, Bou Saab also called for equality among teachers in the public and private sector.

"Nothing justifies" the failure to include private school teachers in the raise, he said.

Despite the referral of the wage hike to the joint committees, the MPs approved to open credits for the payment of the wages of civil sector employees until the end of the year.

The session was one of the fastest, taking only 30 minutes.

G.K.

H.K.