BEIRUT: Parliament is slated to meet Wednesday to pass the public sector wage hike bill, against the backdrop of opposition by the private sector and a threat of an open strike by private school teachers in protest of being excluded from the proposed salary raise.

 

The parliamentary session comes on the eve of a crucial Cabinet meeting, which is expected to address contentious topics such as the issue of Lebanese soldiers and policemen held hostage by Islamist militants and demands by Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk for the building of camps for Syrian refugees outside the Bekaa town of Arsal.

 

Speaker Nabih Berri warned that if opposition to the salary scale bill persisted, he would withdraw the bill from the agenda of Wednesday’s session and refer it again to parliamentary committees for further study.

 

“I have heard negative reactions from some to the salary scale [bill] even though it had taken a long time to prepare and we took the rights of everyone into account,” Berri told reporters in Ain al-Tineh.

 

He said he had received a letter from the government secondary school teachers in which they protested against the fact that elementary and primary teachers were being granted the same salary raise as secondary teachers. He added that he had been told there were also objections to the proposed wage hike from the military corps.

 

“Although the salary scale has gained the agreement of the parliamentary majority, if objections [to the bill] continue until the date of the session, I will withdraw this item from the agenda and refer it again to the relevant committees for study,” Berri said.

 

Responding to protests by the private school teachers, he said: “I understand the objection by the private teachers. But Parliament legislates only for the public sector.”

 

Following a series of intensive talks in the past few weeks, the March 8 and March 14 blocs have agreed on an amended salary scale draft law that would reduce the total cost of the bill from LL2.1 trillion ($1.4 billion) to LL1.940 trillion.

 

The salary scale bill, which had led to strikes and demonstrations by the Union Coordination Committee over the past three years, has been stalled by differences between the March 8 and March 14 blocs over proposed taxes to fund the increases.

 

The agreement by Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc to raise VAT from 10 to 11 percent, as demanded by the Future Movement, has cleared the way for the bill’s approval.

 

The Economic Committees, which represent the country’s private sector, rejected the salary scale bill, warning that its endorsement would lead to a socio-economic catastrophe.

 

“The deal reached by the political parties ... is not aimed to give the UCC, workers and military personnel their rights,” said a statement issued after an emergency meeting held by the committees to discuss the wage hike bill.

 

“On the contrary, the amendments introduced to the new salary draft law will firstly lead to striking the employees’ rights, and secondly to sacrificing the Lebanese economy on the eve of the blessed Eid al-Adha. This will take us to a real financial and socioeconomic catastrophe, which the political parties apparently did not take into account.”

 

Nehme Mahfoud, the head of the Association of Private School Teachers, called for an open strike across Lebanon Wednesday and a mass demonstration near Parliament during the legislative session to protest the exclusion of private school teachers from the proposed salary raise. Following a meeting of the teachers’ general assembly, Mahfoud called on private school teachers to march to Riad Solh Square near Parliament to urge the lawmakers to approve “a fair draft law” that would give rights to everyone.

 

Sidon MP Bahia Hariri, the head of the parliamentary education and culture committee, voiced support for the approval of the salary increase for public and private school teachers.

 

“It is not permissible to separate the official and private sectors,” she said. Schools run by the Hariri Foundation in the southern city of Sidon announced that they would observe Wednesday’s strike.

 

The parliamentary Future bloc, which is expected to vote for the wage hike bill, discussed the additional burdens that might arise from the extension of the bill to include private sector institutions. The bloc stressed that the election of a president was key to resolving national problems.

 

“No matter how difficult and complicated the regional and internal situation is, the gateway to essential national and constitutional solutions lies in the election of a new president,” the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting chaired by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

 

Meanwhile, the Cabinet meets Thursday amid signs of rifts among ministers over the key issue of the Lebanese hostages held by ISIS and Nusra Front militants and the interior minister’s call for the construction of camps for Syrian refugees outside Arsal. Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil is staunchly opposed to the camp proposal.

 

According to sources at the Grand Serail, the ministers are split over whether to accept negotiations, and eventually a swap deal, with the militants holding at least 21 soldiers and policemen hostage.

 

Some ministers might also raise ths issue of Bassil’s meeting last week with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s sessions which went against the government’s declared disassociation policy on the conflict in Syria, the sources said.