Teachers are decrying the devaluation of their salaries amid the economic crisis. (Credit: Marc Fayad)
BEIRUT – Teachers’ unions called for a “central strike” Monday, the same day as the cabinet is scheduled to meet, during a press conference at the Public Primary and Secondary School Teachers League headquarters Friday, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• Public Teachers League head Hussein Jawad decried the financial difficulties faced by teachers, the devaluation of their salaries and benefits amid the country’s economic crisis in a statement issued after the conference.
• Jawad demanded the “preservation of the purchasing power of teachers’ salaries” by “tying them to the dollar exchange rate through the necessary allowances in the government budget.” Similar claims were made for contract teachers for whom Jawad also demanded an increase in salaries in addition to guaranteeing health benefits and making arrangements to reduce their distance from their places of employment.
• The teacher representative also noted the necessity of increasing transportation allowances to “over LL100,000” and the previously agreed upon social grants to “multiples of their proposed value.”