Head of General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn said on Monday that the confederation will stage a strike across Lebanon on December 27 to protest the cabinet wage hike.

According to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Ghosn stressed after a meeting for the executive council that the GLC supports the strike set by the Syndicate Coordination Committee on Thursday but won’t participate.

Hizbullah’s education office slammed the cabinet’s wage boost decree as it voiced its support to the Syndicate Coordination Committee call for strike.

“The cabinet’s (wage hike decree) is offensive and unfair and doesn’t reflect any seriousness in dealing with the issue,” Hizbullah’s education office said in a statement on Thursday.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on Thursday said that the cabinet’s rejection on Wednesday of his wage increase plan was “purely political,” describing the Change and Reform bloc’s partners in the government as “an octopus seeking … to defend its personal interests.”

“Yesterday’s decision to reject our plan was purely political because it sided with the approach of counting on outside forces and appeasing certain parties and ambassadors,” Nahhas told OTV.

The controversial wage hike proposal, which was approved by the majority of the cabinet on Wednesday, had the support of Industry Minister Vrej Sabounjian, a member of the Change and Reform bloc led by MP Michel Aoun, and Hizbullah ministers Mohammed Fneish and Hussein Hajj Hassan.

“The data introduced by (Premier Najib) Miqati were convincing,” Tashnag party minister Sabounjian told As Safir newspaper on Thursday to justify his support for the PM’s proposal rather than the decree introduced by Change and Reform’s Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas.

President of the General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn slammed on Thursday the wage hike decree adopted by the cabinet, describing it as “humiliating.”

“We reject this humiliating wage boost because it doesn’t reach out to the hopes of the workers and their demands,” Ghosn told An Nahar newspaper.

The cabinet is set to discuss on Wednesday the controversial decrees proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on the wage boost to Lebanon’s employees in the public and private sectors.

While the participation of Nahhas along with the other Free Patriotic Movement ministers in the session is not clear yet, the salary raise is on the meeting’s agenda.

Premier Najib Miqati has met with President Michel Suleiman to discuss the agenda of Wednesday’s cabinet session as Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun is expected to announce whether the ministers loyal to him would attend the meeting or not.

Suleiman’s sources told As Safir daily that the session should be held on time, saying the people’s needs should be prioritized rather than obstructing the government work.

A cabinet session is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, a week after Premier Najib Miqati announced the postponement of the meeting and the transfer of funds to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Miqati’s sources confirmed to An Nahar daily that the council of ministers will convene on time at Baabda palace. But they rejected to discuss the details of the contacts aimed at convincing the ministers of Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc to end their boycott.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas did not confirm Wednesday whether Change and Reform bloc ministers would attend a cabinet session set to discuss the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

“There is a possibility that the bloc’s ministers would attend the cabinet sessions,” Nahhas told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3).

Ministers loyal to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun began on Monday pressuring Premier Najib Miqati to meet their demands after Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas referred a series of decrees on the wage boost to the cabinet.

Nahhas’ move came a few days after the Change and Reform bloc ministers conditioned their participation in the government on a series of requests that Miqati should meet. Among them is the increase in salaries and the approval of development projects.