SCC Calls for Tuesday Strike in Public Sector over Wage Scale Draft

The Syndicate Coordination Committee on Monday called for a strike in state administration and in public educational institutions on Tuesday to protest the content of the new wage scale.

"We have decided to suspend work in all public institutions, including ministries, administrations, and municipalities on Tuesday,” the SCC said in a statement after a meeting on Monday evening.

The statement called on public educational institutions to participate in the strike, urging parents to refrain from sending their kids to school.

"We ask all public employees, teachers, and contract workers to join us in a sit-in at 11 am tomorrow at (Beirut's) Riad al-Solh Square,” the SCC added.

The SCC explained that the campaign “against the rights of civil servants and teachers has touched on many aspects of the new wage scale, and resulted in failure to raise wages by 121% in all sectors, similar to what happened in judicial bodies and at the Lebanese University, and in failure to preserve the acquired rights of educators.”

"Also among the results of this campaign against the new wage scale was freezing the contractors' promotion, and that the raise has been divided up over a period of three years, which is contrary to what has been agreed on.”

"The retroactive effect is also facing the danger of being canceled,” the statement noted.

As well, the conferees disapproved of imposing a fine on pensions, increasing the work hours in public administration, and not taking the promotion of administrators into consideration.

Another point the SCC criticized was that the draft did not eliminate "the risks of increasing the VAT, which could harm the underprivileged segments of society.”

Speaker Nabih Berri had called for a legislature session on Tuesday to examine the new wage scale draft law, which was approved by the joint parliamentary committees on Friday evening.

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

S.D.B.

Y.R.