SCC Warns Wage Scale Won't be Funded by the Poor

The Syndicate Coordination Committee warned the government on Sunday against funding the new wage scale for the public sector from the “pockets of the poor” as it pressed with its open-ended strike until the cabinet meets its demands.

At a protest organized by the communist party to reject “sectarian” electoral draft-laws and support the demands of civil servants, SCC activist Mahmoud Haydar said: “The battle and the open-ended strike will continue until the SCC's demands are met.”

“We are fighting the battle of all the poor that represent 99 percent of the people against 1 percent of those who robbed the country,” he said at the rally in downtown Beirut.

The protesters waving red flags of the communist party marched from Barbir square to Riad al-Solh square where they held the rally.

“We know very well who brought the economic crisis … It's time for you to pay the price of the squandered money,” Haydar said addressing the Economic Committees that have warned that the government's decision to boost the wages for public employees would inflict major losses on the public and private sectors.

But Haydar told the Committees, a grouping of the country's businessmen and owners of major firms, that the wage scale “will not be funded by the poor. You will fund them from the money that you robbed.”

The SCC accuses the Committees of evading taxes and fees.

Addressing a ministerial committee tasked with finding the appropriate measures to fund the salary raise, Haydar said: “You should continue to put pressure on the government to refer the wage scale to parliament.”

Haydar also advised Prime Minister Najib Miqati to “hear the voice of protesters.”

“We proved in the past 20 days that we will continue in our open-ended strike,” he said as the SCC,  a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees,  continues to hold daily protests near government institutions to pressure the government.

Former Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, who was among the speakers at the rally, accused the cabinet of “violating the laws because it is incapable of comforting the people.”

“Miqati lost legitimacy over the failure to refer the wage scale to parliament,” he said.

Communist party secretary-general Khaled Hadadeh also called for the immediate approval of the wage scale by the parliament.

He also called for the adoption of an electoral draft-law that considers Lebanon a single electoral district based on a proportional representation system.

He criticized the government for “distancing itself from its duties.”