SCC Announces Series of General Strikes, Calls for Addressing New Wage Scale as Urgent Bill

The Syndicate Coordination Committee announced on Tuesday that it will undertake a series of protests and strikes as a response to the “cabinet's procrastination in referring the new wage scale to the parliament for vote”.

"We will not accept any further delay of this issues,” the SCC said in a released statement, calling for referring it to parliament as an urgent bill.

The SCC declared: “We will hold a general strike on Wednesday January 16 in which all public administrations, ministries, the Grand Serail, public and private schools as well as vocational institutes will participate”.

"Another strike will also take place on 23 of January during which we will march from the Information Ministry in Hamra towards the Grand Serail,” the statement said.

The Committee urged all syndicates to take part in the nation-wide protests aimed at “paralyzing the public sector” on February 5, 6, and 7.

The government had repeatedly failed to refer the new wage scale to the parliament for vote and it argued that it is delaying the issue to thoroughly discuss plans to boost the treasury's revenue to cover the expenses of the salaries boost.

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

The cabinet had approved early in 2012 the new salaries scale for public employees.

The wages increase are retroactive from July 1, 2012.