Cabinet to Tackle Diplomatic Appointments Wednesday without Addressing New Wages Scale

Cabinet is scheduled to resume its meetings on Wednesday by tackling pending diplomatic appointments, reported the daily An Nahar on Monday, while noting that the cabinet will not tackle the dispute over the new wages scale.

It added that the appointments will likely be approved at the session after an agreement by the March 8 camp was reached over the matter.

It noted that the approval of the appointments will grant the cabinet a “push” in light of the March 14 camp's demands for its resignation in the wake of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on October 19.

Meanwhile, the Syndicate Coordination Committee is set to meet on Monday afternoon in order to determine its upcoming steps over the cabinet's failure to address its demands over the new wages scale.

An Nahar said that the SCC will likely postpone a general strike it had scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday pending the possibility that the government may address the new scale during its session later this week.

Head of the private school teachers association Nehme Mahfoud however questioned the cabinet's failure to include the new wages scale dispute on its agenda.

He told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published on Monday that Prime Minister Najib Miqati's failure to include the issue at cabinet will require the SCC to resume its protests on the ground.

“It will take a decision on the matter during its meeting later on Monday,” which is set for 4:00 p.m., he revealed.

He did not rule out the possibility of the resumption of the strike “seeing as the government has returned to normal functioning.”

Earlier this year, the cabinet approved the new salaries scale for public employees ending a long dispute that had prompted the SCC, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, to hold several sit-ins and strikes.

The wages increase will be retroactive from July 1, 2012, but the salary adjustments would be paid in installments over a period of five years.

However, the cabinet is delaying discussion on plans to boost the treasury’s revenue to cover the expenses of the salaries boost. The state treasury will have more than $1.2 billion to cover as there are over 180,000 public sector employees including military personnel.

The Economic Committees, a grouping of the country's businessmen and owners of major firms recently said they would reject any decision taken by cabinet on the new wage scale, warning that the government's plan would "inflict major losses on the public and private sectors."