New Wages Scale to See Light, Teachers Demands Await Correction of Official Exams

Prime Minister Najib Miqati will preside on Wednesday a meeting for the ministerial committee tasked with studying the new wages scale for the public sector at the Grand Serail to resolve the demands of the Syndicate Coordination Committee.

According to An Nahar newspaper, the meeting will settle the wages hike for the public sector before the cabinet convenes on Thursday at the Grand Serail to approve the SCC demands.

Ministerial sources told the daily that the demands of the teachers will not be tackled during Thursday’s session unless they back down on their decision to suspend the correction of the official exams for grades 12 and 9.

Minister of State Panos Manajian, who is a member of the ministerial committee, told As Safir newspaper that the cabinet is expected to approve the new salaries scale for military personnel, public sector employees, administrative personnel and the teachers.

He pointed out that after the cabinet’s decision the SCC’s protest will “not be justified.”

Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that a sub-ministerial committee held a meeting away from the media spotlight on Tuesday to discuss the financial burdens of the wages increase.

The meeting was held in the presence of senior officials at the ministry of finance to study the scale of salaries increase for the public sector.

The SCC, coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, recently staged a nation-wide protest and decided to boycott the correction of official exams over the government’s failure to include the new salaries scale in the state budget.

Miqati had previously suggested dividing the wages scale and referring the bill on the salaries of the teachers independently if the parliament delayed the approval of the public sector wages, which angered the SCC.