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Finance Ministry issues guidelines for civil servant raises

Finance Ministry issues guidelines for civil servant raises

Electricité du Liban's devastated headquarters in Beirut. (Credit: Joao Sousa / L'Orient Today)

Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil issued a decision in recent days setting out the guidelines for increasing the salaries of civil servants and other contract employees in the administration, both active and retired.

The decision, dated Nov. 24, began circulating widely on Monday. It enforces the raises provided for in the 2022 budget law approved by Parliament at the end of September and which came into force on Nov. 15.

The principle is that all the civil servant categories mentioned will receive an increase equal to twice their basic salary, ranging between LL5 million and LL12 million. Diplomatic staff and other staff paid in foreign currency are excluded from the decision.

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The raises only take into account the basic salaries received since Dec. 31, 2019, regardless of grade, and exclude any exceptional increases received since then. Eligible staff and contract employees must have been in continuous service since then.

The departments or institutions’ managements are required to provide the Finance Ministry with a list of employees or retirees who have already received a salary adjustment during the year and whether they are still receiving this benefit after Oct. 1, 2022.

The hourly rate for contract employees hired by the Education Ministry will be determined by the latter in coordination with the Ministry of Finance for the years 2022 and 2023.

While the authorities appear to be in a hurry to pass the pay increases put in place under the 2022 budget law, the question still remains over how they will be financed and their impact on inflation, in a country in crisis since 2019 and whose currency has already lost 95 percent of its value.

Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil issued a decision in recent days setting out the guidelines for increasing the salaries of civil servants and other contract employees in the administration, both active and retired.The decision, dated Nov. 24, began circulating widely on Monday. It enforces the raises provided for in the 2022 budget law approved by Parliament at the end of September and...