BEIRUT: The Union Coordination Committee called Sunday for a general strike ahead of a Parliament session to debate and endorse the public sector’s controversial wage hike bill.
The decision by the UCC, which represents civil servants and teachers in public and private schools, is aimed at exerting pressure on lawmakers to approve the salary scale draft law without slashing the 121 percent wage hike demanded by the UCC or rolling out the hike in installments.
Following an extraordinary meeting, the UCC urged Speaker Nabih Berri and sympathetic lawmakers to defend the salary scale bill during a session of Parliament’s general assembly Tuesday.
Berri has called the Parliament session to debate and vote on the public sector salary scale, which is estimated to cost the cash-strapped government over $1.6 billion annually.
The salary scale bill was approved last week by Parliament’s Joint Committees following a series of marathon sessions.
However, MPs failed to reach an agreement on when the wage hikes would come into effect, whether they would be retroactive and whether they would be paid in installments. They also remained split over the increase in value-added tax and on details of the raises for teachers.
The UCC has staunchly opposed a proposal made by Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh that the salary scale be paid in installments over a five-year period, insisting that it should be paid in full.
During its Sunday meeting, the UCC expressed misgivings about the results of the Joint Parliamentary Committees’ meetings, especially after lawmakers decided “to take the rights of teachers and civil servants to Parliament’s general assembly,” Hanna Gharib, head of the UCC, told a news conference.
“In order to ensure the approval of rights in full and in support of the positions of Speaker Nabih Berri and lawmakers who support these rights, the UCC recommends the implementation of a general and total strike in all ministries, public departments, municipalities and official and private schools Tuesday along with a central sit-in at 11 a.m. on the same day on Riad al-Solh Square,” Gharib said.
He added that the strike was designed to protect the salary scale and ward off risks surrounding it with regard to dividing or installing it, reducing its figures, or failing to approve the same 121 percent pay hike granted to judges and Lebanese University teachers.
Tuesday’s Parliament session is likely to see heated debates among MPs between supporters and opponents of the salary increase, which has been a demand of civil servants and teachers for several years.
Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt said his parliamentary bloc would vote against the salary scale draft law if the funding sources were not clear enough.
“My parliamentary bloc will object to the salary scale draft law if it lacks clear means of funding,” Jumblatt told An-Nahar newspaper.
“We will not vote for any increase, although we consider the demand for it justified, if it is not coupled with a real reform process in the public administrations and institutions,” he said. Jumblatt said that his bloc would meet Monday to discuss the issue.
Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai urged Parliament to balance three things while discussing the bill: The people’s rights, the state’s financial resources and the necessary reforms.
“Justice demands that the people be given their rights,” Rai said in a Palm Sunday Mass.
Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah reiterated his party’s support for the bill and lashed out at business leaders who warned of dire consequences on the ailing economy if it was approved.
“We are adamant on our position in ... to approve the salary scale draft law, away from intimidation exercised by the owners of accumulated money who have collected their money from the pockets of the Lebanese,” Fadlallah told a memorial ceremony in the southern town of Bint Jbeil.
“Those who are making huge profits from the Lebanese people must pay a little. The taxes [in Lebanon] are much less than those imposed in Western and other countries,” he added.
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