Civil servants strike to demand salary hike

Civil servants staged a three-hour strike Tuesday to urge the Cabinet to approve a wage hike for public workers. According to the National News Agency, participants in the strike, which was called by the Unions’ Coordination Committee, included employees of the Economy Ministry, the Culture Ministry and the Central Inspection Department. Civil servants in the east’s Baalbek and Hermel, Mount Lebanon’s Aley, the north’s Akkar, Bsharri, Koura and Mina-Tripoli, and the south’s Nabatieh stopped working for several hours. In some towns and cities, the strikers held sit-ins facing the Serail. Further measures have been planned for Wednesday. Civil servants from all over the country, along with public and private school teachers, will take part in a sit-in Wednesday morning in front of the Grand Serail in Beirut. Many civil servants have yet to benefit from the wage raise mandated by the Cabinet in January for both the public and private sectors. Last week, the Cabinet failed to take action on a new set of salary scales for public sector workers. Ministers decided to task an expanded ministerial committee to study the issue and carry out “a detailed discussion of the segment related to the education sector, which will receive priority in the committee’s work,” according to a statement issued after the session. Mikati was named to head the committee, which includes the deputy prime minister, Samir Moqbel, and Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi.