Hasan Lakkis| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Parliament decided to delay yet again a controversial wage hike for public sector workers that has prompted numerous strikes and protests in recent months.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese government will address Thursday the long-simmering crisis of Army hostages held by jihadists near Arsal.
Speaker Nabih Berri sent the controversial draft wage hike law back to joint committees Wednesday, citing the opposition of many sectors to the bill.
“Many sectors were not pleased with the bill,” Berri told lawmakers at the start of a Parliament session. “That’s why I ask for the return of the draft law to the Joint Parliamentary Committees for further study.”
Berri expressed regret at his inability to “offer the salary scale as a gift on the occasion of Eid al-Adha,” which falls on the weekend.
Parliament was slated to pass the public sector wage hike bill against the backdrop of opposition by the private sector and a threat of a strike by private school teachers to protest their exclusion from the proposed salary raise.
Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil from Berri’s bloc said the salary raise had been postponed partly because it was unfair to military personnel, who face numerous dangers.
“There were substantial observations on the issue in terms of the military institution, and as a result the approval of the salary scale was delayed,” Khalil told reporters after the 30-minute session.
Khalil, however, acknowledged that lawmakers had overcome massive obstacles to achieve the desires of teachers and trade unions.
The revised bill had applied only to civil servants.
Defense Minister Samir Moqbel said he would soon submit to Cabinet a separate draft law specially designed to suit military personnel.
“What applies to the military institution cannot be applied to regular institutions because soldiers who have multiple missions at different locations and in far-off places are not like civil servants, who finish their office work at 1 p.m.,” Moqbel said. Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, however, linked the postponement to teachers’ rights in both the private and public sectors.“We will continue to stand alongside the Union Coordination Committee in its demands, and we will work to avert disruption of the current academic year,” Bou Saab said from Parliament headquarters.
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said in a television interview that there is “fresh intent” to pass the wage hike but said the committees should ensure the new bill takes into consideration the tough economic situation.
Following Berri’s announcement, lawmakers quickly passed eight draft laws, most significantly the allocation of LL626 billion to pay the November and December salaries of public sector employees.
The passage of the laws paves the way for Parliament to vote on the extension of its own mandate in a session after the Eid holiday.
The parliamentary session comes on the eve of a crucial Cabinet meeting, which is expected to address contentious topics such as the Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by Islamist militants and demands by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk to build camps for Syrian refugees outside the Bekaa town of Arsal.
Ministerial sources told The Daily Star that the Cabinet session would aim to establish a clear mechanism for negotiating with the captors and a way to calm the fears of the families of the hostages and inform them of progress in the negotiations. That progress is crucial in order to convince the families to disperse their ongoing protest camps, which have blocked crucial thoroughfares linking Beirut to the Bekaa Valley and Tripoli.
But ministerial sources expressed concern that the hostage crisis might not be easily resolved because the Nusra Front had demanded the release of prisoners held in Roumieh who had confessed to taking part in terrorist attacks in southern suburbs, while ISIS had demanded the release of 300 prisoners held in jails in Syria.
Meanwhile, private teachers rallied at Riad Solh Square, a few blocks from the Parliament building, to vent their anger over the wage hike bill.
The head of the Association of Private School Teachers, Nehme Mahfouz, said the teachers were simply asking for justice and equality, saying that according to the law, private school teachers should be treated on equal footing with public sector teachers. He warned that if Parliament ignored the private sector’s demands and went ahead with passing the bill, the teachers would take moves to escalate the situation, including an open-ended strike.
A call for a nationwide strike in private schools was poorly observed Wednesday, as many establishments operated normally across the country.
Catholic schools and other private institutions had announced that they would not be closing in response to the call made by the Association of Private School teachers.
