Nahhas Describes Wage Hike Approval as ‘Accomplishment’
Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas said that he will refer the wage hike plan approved by the cabinet to the Shura Council on Thursday to get its response swiftly.
“If the Shura Council approved the decision it will be sent quickly to the official gazette so that it becomes as of December,” Nahhas told al-Liwaa newspaper on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the minister pushed his own proposal on the table of the government which approved it after receiving the vote of 15 ministers.
Nahhas described the vote result as an “accomplishment achieved by the cabinet in its path towards change and reform.”
The new cabinet decision calls for raising the minimum wage to LL868,000 from the current LL500,000 – a sum that includes a LL236,000 transportation allowance.
Ministerial sources told al-Liwaa that Nahhas’ proposal surprised President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati especially after the premier reached an agreement with the Economic Committees and the General Labor Confederation on settling the minimum wage rate at LL675,000.
Miqati had previously made another proposal and was approved by the cabinet on Dec. 7 other than that proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas. It states that the minimum wage should be increased by LL100,000 to LL600,000, salaries under LL1 million by 30 percent up to a LL200,000 increase, and salaries above LL1 million by a 20 percent increase up to LL275,000.
Change and Reform parliamentary bloc sources told As Safir newspaper that Wednesday’s session is a “victory achieved through the constitution and the law by voting on the project proposed by the competent minister.”
“Miqati’s agreement with the GLC and the Economic Committees bypassed the constitution and the Labor Minister who is the only one that has the right to propose a vote on the wage hike,” the sources added.
They noted that the cabinet’s approval of Nahhas’ project is a “new stage” that all the parties will have to “cohabit with, which will be based on the reality that there is a real majority that decided to act.”
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