Miqati for One step at a Time Approach as Teachers Warn of ‘Intifada’

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Saturday that he was exerting efforts in resolving controversial issues including the request to increase the salaries of public sector teachers and employees.

“I am doing my job and carrying out my duties, and exerting efforts on all issues,” Miqati said in response to the decision of the Syndicate Coordination Committee to boycott the correction of the grade 9 and 12 official exams.

“Let those who have solutions to everything come forward and propose them,” he quipped. “We are doing our job calmly and responsibly. So everything would come at the right time.”

According to As Safir, the premier will meet with the members of the committee upon his return from a private visit abroad on Monday and would seek to put the demands on the agenda of the cabinet session on Wednesday.

A ministerial source confirmed to al-Liwaa that the priority following the approval of the 2012 budget by the cabinet was to resolve the salaries of public sector employees.

A ministerial committee will come up with the appropriate proposals in the coming days to resolve the problem, the source said and expected the cabinet to approve it within the coming weeks or in early August.

The Syndicate Coordination Committee, which is a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, boycotted the correction of the exams over the government’s failure to include the salary scale in the budget.

It also called on its followers to hold a sit-in on Tuesday at 11:00 a.m. near the ministry of education and state institutions.

The head of the Secondary Teachers Association, Hanna Gharib, accused the government of procrastinating in the approval of the demands at a time when the teachers “did all what they were asked for and began correcting the exams.”

“They procrastinate and do not carry out their promises,” he told As Safir and reiterated that agreement had been reached between the two sides to pass the salary scale in June and implement it at the beginning of July.

Gharib warned to “hold a large Intifada for the first time in the history of the public sector in Lebanon on Tuesday” if the ministerial committee does not agree with the SCC on its demands.