BEIRUT: Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and teacher unionist Nehme Mahfoud pledged Monday to bring the issue of the long sought-after wage hike back to the table, as contract teachers briefly blocked a road outside the ministry to demand full-time jobs.
“We will not stop demanding the ranks and salary scale,” Mahfoud, the head of the private school teachers union, said in a speech at UNESCO Palace in Beirut marking Teachers' Day, which is celebrated each March 9 in Lebanon.
“The Lebanese people saw in the Union Coordination Committee an honest voice against corruption and oppression, and the committee will remain democratic and independent.”
Mahfoud called on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to send back the wage hike draft law to the Joint Committees for another discussion to help it secure approval in the general assembly.
The draft law was expected to have been approved by Parliament in October, but lawmakers clashed over how to finance it, prompting Berri to delay the vote.
Bou Saab, who spoke after Mahfoud, said Berri had expressed his support for the wage hike.
“We will meet with Speaker Berri on Wednesday,” he said. “I have heard all positive things from him about the quickest way of moving forward the matter of the wage hike.”
Bou Saab said he also backed the ranks and salary scale, despite having come under harsh criticism last year after issuing passing certificates to all students in the country who sat for official exams.
The UCC had boycotted the correction of the exams to pressure lawmakers into passing the wage scale. Bou Saab's decision to pass the students was seen as undermining the teachers' struggle.
“The only fair gift for teachers is the adoption of a ranks and salary scale that protects their dignity and rights,” he said. “I promise all teachers that I will always demand their rights.”
As the officials spoke, contract school teachers held a simultaneous protest outside the Education Ministry, only meters from UNESCO, where they blocked a major road to demand pay raises and full-time employment.
The street was only blocked for a few minutes.
In his speech, Bou Saab announced that he issued a decree to increase the hourly wages of contract teachers.
He also said he doubled the hour wage for proctoring exams to become equivalent to an hour of teaching.
But the decree will need Cabinet approval before it could be implemented, Bou Saab added.
The contract teachers are also demanding permanent employment in the public sector, especially that a number of them risk losing a significant pension after serving for more than 10 years at public schools.
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