Berri Meets Bou Saab, SCC, Calls for Joint Parliamentary Committees Session on Wage Scale

Speaker Nabih Berri held talks on Wednesday with Education Minister Elias Bou Saab and a delegation from the Syndicate Coordination Committee on the new wage scale.

Bou Saab stated after the talks that Berri requested the concerned officials to call for a joint parliamentary committees meeting on Tuesday to address the hike.

“We are trying our utmost to address the new wage scale issue,” he said after the meeting with the speaker at his Ain el-Tineh residence.

“We are working on granting those with justified demands their rights,” declared the minister.

Moreover, Bou Saab said that Berri had requested that he discuss this matter with head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, and Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan.

“Our discussions will be held as soon as possible ahead of Tuesday's session,” added the education minister.

The SCC is a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees that has in recent years spearheaded protests aimed at approving a new wage scale.

After postponing several sessions on the controversial issue, the parliament in October returned a draft scale to the joint parliamentary committees for further discussions.

However, the new wage scale has not been approved until the moment due to political differences

M.T.

Y.R.