Business Leaders Meet on Tuesday to Discuss Labor Minister’s New Proposal

Business leaders will hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ proposal to correct the minimum wages.

As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday that the business leaders will reject the proposal because it didn’t include adding the transportation allowance to the basic salary and the wage hike didn’t respond to the figures released by the Central Statistics office.

Last week, Nahhas held a meeting with representatives of the private sector, the price index committee, and the head of the General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn to discuss a “comprehensive” proposal before submitting it to the cabinet.

Nahhas’ proposal includes a raise in wages, social benefits, health care, tax measures and the creation of new jobs.

The economic committees will hold a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry to discuss minister Nahhas’ proposal as head of Beirut Merchants Association Nicolas Shammas will discuss the matter and announce the association’s stance before Thursday.

For his part, GLC head Ghosn told As Safir newspaper that he insists on the cabinet to implement raising the minimum wage to LL700,000 with adding LL300,000 to all the other salaries.

Ghosn also holds on to the social security and health care offerings, raising the transportation allowance and school scholarships.

“If the economic and labor representatives rejected Nahhas’ proposal then the solution remains in raising the minimum wages to LL700,000 with additional LL250,000 on all other salaries.

In October, the Shura Council rejected the decision taken by the Cabinet to increase minimum wages by LL200,000 for salaries under LL1 million and by LL300,000 for salaries between LL1 million and LL1.8 million.