Report: Aoun Not Convinced with Nahhas’ Wage Hike Proposal
Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has reportedly backed a wage hike proposal made by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas to send a clear message to Premier Najib Miqati that he should take the opinion of the FPM and Change and Reform bloc before taking any decision.
“We are aware that the (cabinet’s wage boost) decision harms the economy and it is difficult to implement it … but we voted in favor of it with the sole aim of making the PM understand that we can break his decisions and that he should take our opinion into consideration,” ministerial sources quoted Aoun as saying in remarks published in pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Monday.
The cabinet approved last month the wage hike proposal made by Nahhas, who is loyal to Aoun. It calls for raising the minimum wage to LL868,000 from the current LL500,000 – a sum that includes a LL236,000 transportation allowance.
The decision also says that workers earning less than LL1.5 million should receive an 18 percent increase while salaries between LL1.5 million and LL2.5 million should receive an additional 10 percent on the second salary bracket. Wages above LL2.5 million will not earn an additional raise.
The raise is effective as of Dec. 1, 2011. But the Shura Council will have the final say on it.
Nahhas made this proposal to thwart an attempt by Miqati to implement another wage boost suggestion made by him.
The PM had agreed with the Economic Committees and the General Labor Confederation on fixing the minimum wage rate at LL675,000 without the transportation allowance. But despite the agreement between the three parties, Nahhas pushed his own proposal on the table of the cabinet which approved it after receiving the vote of 15 ministers.
Al-Hayat’s sources also said that Hizbullah ministers have admitted in conversations with other ministers that the labor minister’s suggestion cannot be implemented for economic reasons.
They also admitted that they voted in favor of it in the cabinet to please Aoun and consolidate their alliance with him after he complained that his ministers weren’t receiving enough backing in decisions taken by the government, the sources added.
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