Cabinet Adopts Nahhas’ Wage Hike Proposal in Tit for Tat Row
The Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah and Amal dealt a blow to Premier Najib Miqati on Wednesday after they voted in favor of a wage boost decree proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas hours after the Economic Committees and the General Labor Confederation agreed with minor changes on a previous proposal made by the PM.
Fifteen ministers voted in favor of Nahhas’ wage hike decree while 11 voted against it. Minister Wael Abou Faour abstained from voting while Ministers Salim Karam, Faisal Karami and Nazem al-Khoury did not attend the session that was held at Baabda palace.
The new cabinet decision calls for raising the minimum wage to LL868,000 from the current LL500,000 – a sum that includes a LL236,000 transportation allowance.
Workers earning less than LL1.5 million receive an 18 percent increase while salaries between LL1.5 million and LL2.5 million receive an additional 10 percent on the second salary bracket. Wages above LL2.5 million will not earn an additional increase.
The raise is effective as of Dec. 1, 2011.
The approval of Nahhas’ suggestion came the same day Hizbullah’s press office announced that the Shiite party’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and FPM chief Michel Aoun held talks and “stressed the importance of full coordination and the adoption of an effective mechanism in this regard in the next phase.”
The voting in favor of the proposal was seen as an attempt by Hizbullah, FPM and Amal to deal a blow to Miqati who on Dec. 7 suggested another wage hike mechanism that received the approval of the Shura Council with minor amendments.
The GLC and the Economic Committees, which had been bickering on Miqati’s proposal in the past week, made a last-minute deal ahead of Thursday’s cabinet session by agreeing on a LL675,000 minimum wage.
Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, who is from Speaker Nabih Berri’s Amal movement, had contributed to the deal. But he later voted in favor of Nahhas’ proposal to back his ally Hizbullah and the FPM in their showdown with Miqati.
Nahhas told al-Liwaa daily on Thursday that he would send the decree to the Shura Council and if it was approved, he would immediately seek to publish it in the Official Gazette.
Miqati’s original proposal that was approved by the cabinet on Dec. 7 called for increasing the minimum wage to LL600,000. The PM had made his suggestion despite a decree proposed by Nahhas, who on Thursday retaliated by pushing ahead his proposal.
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