Khalil Rejects Bahia Hariri's Request of 30% Loan of the New Wage Scale as SCC Holds Onto Correction Boycott

Syndicate Coordination Committee activists held on Wednesday a general strike and a sit-in in Beirut to pressure the MPs into approving the public sector wage scale, vowing to continue the boycott of the official exams until Speaker Nabih Berri calls for a parliamentary session.

SCC members then held talks with al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Bahia Hariri and with Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, but the conferees failed to reach an accord.

They also planned to convene with former Premier Saad Hariri. However, Hariri left the country for Saudi Arabia.

LBCI television reported that the Sidon MP asked Khalil for a 30 percent loan of the total value of the new wage scale, but added that the latter rejected her request before the adoption of the contentious law at the parliament.

The SCC, meanwhile, also rejected Hariri's suggestion, explaining that “those who can head to parliament and pay 30 percent of the new wage scale's total value can manage to pay the full amount,” MTV said.

Earlier in the morning, head of the Private Schools Teachers Association Nehme Mahfoud vowed during the protest held at Riyad al-Solh square that the official exams will be marked only if Berri calls for a parliamentary session to approve the pay raise.

“The SCC emerged victorious,” he told dozens of protesters a day after the committee struck a deal with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab to refrain from issuing passing certificates for at least four days.

Bou Saab had threatened to issue the certificates for Grade 12 and Grade 9 school students who sat for the official exams starting Wednesday.

He later succumbed to the pressure of the SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, which held a protest at the education ministry on Tuesday.

During the demonstration, boycotting teachers argued with those willing to correct the exams, showing signs of division.

In June, Bou Saab struck a deal with the SCC to hold the exams but not correct them until the salary scale was approved by the parliament.

But the rival MPs have so far failed to adopt the draft-law over their differences on raising taxes to fund the scale.

Several parliamentary blocs have raised fears of inflation and its effect on the poor despite their support for the public sector's rights.

They have also warned that Lebanon's ailing economy would suffer if the total funding was not reduced from LL2.8 trillion ($1.9 billion) to LL1.8 trillion ($1.2 billion) and if it was not paid in installments.

But Head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib put a threshold, telling the Riyad al-Solh protesters that the SCC will not accept a raise less than 75% of what it had been promised under the former government of Premier Najib Miqati.

He vowed to continue to hold civilized and peaceful demonstrations.

G.K./ S.D.B.

H.K.