Teachers, public workers set for open-ended strike

Public workers and school teachers will proceed with their open-ended strike Tuesday after the Cabinet failed to convene Monday to approve the long-awaited wage hike and send it to Parliament for endorsement.

The Union Coordination Committee, which groups teachers and public civil servants, will stage a sit-in near the Grand Serail to pressure the Cabinet to approve the salary increase.

“The UCC promises all repressed and marginalized Lebanese that it will continue to care about their rights and will not suspend its strike until the raise is referred to Parliament,” a UCC statement said Monday.

But several private schools said that they would not join the strike. Some of the private school owners have said that any salary hike for teachers would compel them to raise tuition, a move rejected by the students’ parents.

But sources told The Daily Star that the Directorate for Urban Planning has apparently dropped its reservation on the plan. The proposed tax is part of a package aimed at securing financing for the new salary scale that is expected to cost the treasury an estimated $1.2 billion annually.

The Directorate for Urban Planning later Monday approved the suggestion but restricted the additional floor permits to buildings that are under construction only. Owners of existing buildings will not be permitted to add floors, the directorate said.

Mikati said the process of funding the wage hike was nearly complete.

“The needed finances [for the salary scale] have almost been secured. There are some things left that need agreement,” he added.

The prime minister also urged labor unions demanding the referral of the draft law to Parliament for final approval “to understand that the proposal not only concerns them but it affects all the Lebanese.”