In an article for “Al-Akhbar,” Fouad Bou Zei wrote that the Council of Ministers decided to postpone the discussion of the draft amendment to the salaries of public sector employees for a month and a half, in order to link it to the preparation of a project to restructure the public sector, which will be used to estimate the costs of the proposed increase.
The council dealt very negatively with the draft increases presented by the head of the Civil Service Council, Nisrine Machmouchi, at the session held last Thursday, reflecting the ministers’ views towards the public sector and their desire to undermine it, and their disregard for the continued suffering of about 332,000 public sector employees for six years. It seems that the government, with this decision, is circumventing the demands of the public sector by making more promises, as the government’s decision only indicated that it “took note of the presentation and decided to complete the studies.” It also seems that the government does not realize the ability of these employees to disrupt the work of the state if it becomes clear to them that the government does not currently want to amend their salaries and seeks to link the increase to financial matters such as “tax compliance, combating customs evasion, and other reform matters,” according to the government decision, and that this government finds no embarrassment in appointing members of regulatory bodies whose salary is not less than $6,000 per month without achieving any progress at the level of public services.
From the employees’ side, the only means available to them is escalatory action that relies on strikes as a tool to obtain rights. This movement began today with a strike that closes schools and high schools for two days, and is supposed to include official departments in ministries and public institutions, although their closure is largely linked to the political decisions of the parties and not to the interests of the employees.
Another problem lies in the fact that, unlike before, no counter proposal from the employees has emerged, but rather they dealt with the problem with a logic of reaction, not initiative, and agreed to negotiate within the ceiling of obtaining 50% of the value of their salaries in 2019 and paying the remaining 50% in installments over two years. This hesitation on the part of the employees kept the Civil Service Council’s project alone on the table, and enabled the political authority to procrastinate more and postpone the discussion constantly.
In an article for “Al-Diyar,” Umaima Shams El-Din wrote that public sector employees are continuing their strike in protest against the government’s failure to meet their demands to restore the value of their salaries to what they were before 2019, and despite receiving many promises, the government continues its policy of procrastination, while acknowledging the legitimacy of their demands, which is what President General Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Judge Nawaf Salam said.
In this context, a member of the Public Administration Employees Association, Ibrahim Nahal, stated in an interview with “Al-Diyar”: “The Council of Ministers held its session last Thursday to listen and listen to the report of the Civil Service Council project on salaries and wages, despite its seriousness and negatives and our objection to a large number of points, it met, listened and listened, then postponed, procrastinated, and carried out a process of delay for further study, ignoring all the promises given by His Excellency the President of the Republic, and the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, ignoring all the demanding movements and strikes carried out by the Public Sector Unions Association, civilians and military, and judicial assistants, which led to the paralysis of the country, as if it were in another country other than Lebanon.”
He added: “The Council of Ministers took note of the financial costs to decide to complete the study and the necessary measures to be taken, taking into account the financial revenues expected to be collected as a result of activating tax compliance and combating tax and customs evasion and other reform matters raised by the Minister of Finance,” noting that “the implementation of this project awaits “commitments,” meaning that the correction of salaries, wages and pensions is suspended until the end of these procedures, which may be long and long and long, and may not end, and that all these justifications are only a pretext to evade giving the rights holders their demands and carrying out a serious process to correct salaries, wages and pensions.” Nahal announced “From this standpoint, we reject this procrastination and this delay by the political authority and the decision to extend the strike and stop working starting from Monday 19/01/2036 to Sunday 25/01/2026, and more escalation in the street in coordination with the Unions Association, which includes retired military and civilians, all education unions, the Public Administration Employees Association, judicial assistants and contractors’ committees.”
Nahal believes that the dangers of this report “lie in striking the pension system, the social benefits system, including:
– Paving the way for the abolition of the pension: reducing the pension rate for those in service to 70 percent instead of 85 percent in submission to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and donor countries.
– Multiplying the salary 46 times from the purchasing value of the salary in 2019 (the approximate inflation rate is 60 times or more), meaning a loss of 14 times in addition to the high cost of living and inflation from 2019 to 2030
– Abolishing the right of the single girl who has reached 25 years of age to her right to the pension of her guardian, and the benefit rate for the boy will be reduced to 50 percent.”
Nahal called on everyone to intensify efforts and confront the authority’s projects to strike the public sector, privatize it, and strike the pension and social benefits system.”
Regarding the Machmouchi project, Nahal pointed out that “there are many objections to it and it contains many gaps and risks, foremost of which are:
1 – Reducing the pension rate to 70% for all those in actual service, civilians and military, and everyone who will enter the service later.
2- Gradually doubling the salary to reach 46 times in 2030 instead of 60 times (which is the rate at which salaries and pensions have declined), provided that the doubling takes place over five years, as follows: doubling the salary 22 times in 2026, – and 28 times in 2027 2029, – and 34 times in 2028 – and 40 times in – reaching 46 times in 2030.
– Depriving unmarried girls from benefiting from the pension of the deceased employee after they reach the age of twenty-five, and reducing the benefit rate to 50% for the only beneficiary boy.
Nahal concluded by saying: “Among our demands, in addition to restoring the value of our salaries:
– Approving a pension charter for contractors, workers, and all employees in public administration who benefit from social security (severance compensation)
– Extending the retirement age to 68 years in order to enable old employees to train new employees.
– Regularizing contractors, workers, and daily workers and all employees in the public sector in order to fill the vacancies in the administration, which exceeded 70 percent.
– Abolishing functional contracting and rejecting the sale and privatization of the public sector in submission to the dictates of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and donor countries.”
