Joint Committees Approve New Wage Scale, Refer it to Parliament

After weeks of discussion and nation-wide protests that were led by the Syndicate Coordination Committee, the Joint Parliamentary Committees approved late on Friday the new wage scale and referred it to the parliament for a vote.

“The joint parliamentary committees completed the examination of the new wage scale draft and the proposal about funding it, and will submit a report to the parliament,” the state-run National News Agency said.

Then, adopting the law will be depend on the approval of the legislature, the NNA added, revealing that legislators might study the draft during a Tuesday session.

The committees discussed thoroughly the contentious draft's articles, but left some for a parliamentary plenary session.

"We approved the articles related to the pay raise of employees and contractors,” head of the Finance and Budget Parliamentary Committee MP Ibrahim Kanan revealed after the joint parliamentary committees' evening session.

“We agreed on some articles, and we had disagreements on others,” Kanaan said.

He noted that all articles that were approved will be detailed in a report and referred to the legislature.

Meanwhile, articles that are still awaiting to be approved will be evaluated at the parliament, said Kanaan.

MTV remarked that the disagreement is on the new wage scale's articles that deal with the VAT increase.

“The ongoing discussion revolves around whether to increase the VAT by 15% on luxurious items, or by 12 to 13% on all items,” MTV said.

LBCI television had noted earlier that the discussion over the VAT might be done at the legislature.

“So far 1,600 billion Lebanese pounds have been secured for funding the new wage scale, which requires a total of 3,000 billion Lebanese pounds,” the same source said.

During the evening talks, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stressed that funding the new wage scale “must not be done at the expense of underprivileged and the poor segments of society, if we were really looking to secure justice and balance in the country.”

The Economic Committees, which reject the new wage scale, held an emergency meeting on Thursday in order to study the “catastrophic tax measures” adopted by the joint parliamentary committees and their effects on the national economy.

Meanwhile, the SCC had warned of escalation in the protests, of an open-ended strike and of boycotting the correction of official exams if the parliament fails to endorse the new wage scale.

Former Prime Minister Najib Miqati's cabinet approved in 2012 a new salary scale for public employees ending a long dispute that had prompted the SCC to hold several sit-ins and strikes.

President Michel Suleiman signed the decree mid-June 2013 and it was referred to the joint parliamentary committees for further scrutiny.

The wage increase will be retroactive from July 1, 2012.

The state treasury will have more than $1.2 billion to cover as there are over 180,000 public sector employees including military personnel.

S.D.B.

Y.R.