Caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi. Photo NNA
BEIRUT — Delayed supplemental cash payments for public school teachers will be paid by the end of September, caretaker Education Minister Abbas Halabi said on Monday according to the state-run National News Agency, following a mass protest last week by teachers demanding better wages.
As for other demands, particularly the dollarization of their salaries, Halabi reportedly said that "the matter is not possible, because [employees] of other public sectors like judges, security forces, administration workers and others will demand the same thing."
"There are demands that we can meet and others that we can't," Halabi said, as quoted by the NNA, adding that those that the government can meet are the overdue transportation dues and health benefits.
A high school teacher in South Lebanon told L'Orient Today on Monday that the government has not paid teachers their assistance, which are cash payments meant to supplement their salaries, for the months of August and September. He also said that teachers need livable salaries, which would require their monthly payments to fluctuate alongside the volatile Lebanese lira according to its parallel market exchange rate.