Shura rejects wage decree

Cabinet could reconsider the formula of the decree in light of Shura Council’s recommendations: Minister of Labor says

The Shura Council has rejected a Cabinet draft decree to increase the wages of employees and workers.
The Council said that reconsidering the official minimum wage should be done on a yearly basis in accordance with the Arab Agreement of 1983 on determining and protecting wages.

The Council criticized the exclusion of workers whose salaries exceed LL1.8 million ($1,200) from the wage increase. “The increase of the cost of living is a reality which supposedly affects all workers,” the Council said in its statement.

The Shura also said that the decree contradicts article six of the Labor Law (1967) which entrusts the Parliament to determine the inflation rate and thus determine the percentage of the wage raise. The decree stated raising the official minimum wage from LL500,000 to LL700,000. Wages below LL1 million will be increased by LL200,000, while those between LL1 million and LL1.8 million would be increased by LL300,000.

The Shura Council also argued that the government is not entitled to determine or amend the transportation or education fees provided by the employers to the workers (Article six of Law 36/37).

The Minister of Labor, Charbel Nahas, said that he would refer the Shura Council’s rejection to the Cabinet. Though the Shura’s recommendations are nonbinding, Nahhas said that the Cabinet could decide to review the decree in its proposed formula.

The President of the General Confederation for Labor Unions (GCLU), Ghassan Ghosn, said that the Shura’s rejection of the draft offers the cabinet the opportunity to expand the decree to include workers earning more than LL1.8 million per month.

Ghosn said that the Shura’s statement overthrew the business leaders’ argument that the State is not entitled to interfere in determining the salaries of employees who earn above the minimum wage threshold.