Public Sector Wage Scale Delayed for More Talks, Govt. Promises to Approve Teachers Scale Soon

The Syndicate Coordination Committee on Wednesday said it hold a meeting this afternoon to take a final decision on whether or not to resume correcting official exam papers after it received a “promise” from Education Minister Hassan Diab on approving the new wages scale by the end of the month.

Briefing reporters after a meeting headed by Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail for the ministerial committee tasked with studying the new wages scale, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said endorsing the new scale for all employees requires further meetings.

“We have made major progress concerning the issue of numbers, but we still need another session in order to reach a final solution to the issues,” the minister added.

For his part, Labor Minister Salim Jreissati said: “We will resume discussions during a session that will be held on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.”

During the committee’s meeting, an SCC delegation discussed with Miqati the committee’s demands concerning the new wages scale for teachers.

Minister Diab then announced that the finance ministry had submitted a draft wages scale with the first four ranks amended from L.L.35,000 to L.L.40,000.

“The ministerial committee, in the presence of the prime minister, has promised that it will be approved in cabinet by the end of August at the latest,” Diab said, hoping the SCC “will resume correcting the exam papers.”

“We approve everything minister Diab has said and today’s meeting focused on three points: the first point is the timing of approving the wages scale and we were promised that it will be approved either before Eid al-Fitr or by the end of this month at the latest,” Nehme Mahfoud, head of private schools teachers union, said.

“We agreed during the broad meeting today on the principle of equality in ranks between teachers and administrative employees,” Mahfoud added.

An Nahar newspaper reported that Wednesday’s meeting would settle the wages hike for the public sector before the cabinet convenes on Thursday at the Grand Serail to approve SCC’s 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.