Public workers on strike

Protestors call Cabinet to fulfill promises or leave

Public sector employees and public and private school teachers are on strike today (October 10) in a bid to pressure the government into approving their salary raise.

Civil servants are calling on the Cabinet to send the salary scale draft law to Parliament to be approved. The salary scale will benefit some 220,000 public sector employees in the military, the security forces, and in administration, as well as other state employees and public school teachers. The Cabinet approved the new scale in early September, but said it would not refer it to Parliament unless the needed funds, some $1.1 billion, are secured first.

“The Cabinet should fulfill its promises or quit,” said Nehme Mahfouz, president of the Private School Teachers Syndicate. Teachers in both public and private schools are subject to the Cabinet decision on salaries.

The union threatened to declare an open-ended strike if its demands were not heeded. “Today we held a one-day strike, next week we will likely hold a two-day strike up to an open-ended strike in all public administrations and schools,” Mahfouz said.

The Cabinet had agreed to finance the salary scale through more taxes but became reluctant after facing a fierce protest from the private sector business leaders. Mahfouz said: “Economic associations are being irrational and are exaggerating the impact of the salary scale on the economy.” He called on business leaders to rally against corruption instead of the salary scale: “They should protest the corruption taking place in the port of Beirut, and in the Ministry of Telecommunication, and the cadastre.”