A demonstrator in front of the Grand Serail in Beirut, on Feb. 28, 2024, during a sit-in to call for a fair increase in salaries and end-of-service allowances in the public sector. (Credit: Mohammad Yassin)
Lebanese public administration employees announced the suspension of their strike on Thursday afternoon. However, they said they are still awaiting clarification of several points in the proposal to increase civil servants' pay, which was adopted on Wednesday by Najib Mikati's caretaker cabinet.
In a press release issued just after a meeting devoted to the issue, the Rally of Public Administration Employees said it was waiting "for all the unclear points in the decree published yesterday [Wednesday] by the government to be clarified … so that citizens can complete their outstanding formalities."
However, the organization did not specify whether it intended to call civil servants out on strike again if the clarifications provided by the authorities fails to align with their demands.
Last adjustment in 2017
The group also called for "a correction in the remuneration of civil servants by adopting a salary scale in line with current economic reality," a demand that aims to adjust all civil service remuneration on a permanent basis. "The [financial] incentives given by the government must include all civil servants," the unionists said.
The last adjustment to the pay scale was made in 2017, two years before the onset of the crisis that caused the value of the Lebanese lira to plummet and, by extension, the value of civil service salaries, which have still not been brought into line with the new market exchange rate. In almost five years, this rate has risen from LBP 1507.5 to LBP 89,500 to the dollar, a 60-fold increase.
On Wednesday, the government increased civil servants' pay in a bid to end their strike, which has lasted for more than two months. But according to trade unionist Ibrahim Nahhal it is difficult for civil servants to trust the pay increase will truly meet their needs. "We are going to study the government's decisions carefully so that we can calculate the proposed increases in relation to the high cost of living," he told L'Orient-Le Jour.
"We certainly want to get back to work and make life easier for citizens, but we also need to be able to lead a decent life,"added Nahhal, pointing out that February salaries have still not been distributed due to the strike by Finance Ministry employees. According to a source at the Finance Ministry, who was not authorized to speak to the press, the payment of salaries for the entire public sector will be very delayed even if the ministry's employees end their strike today, given their central role in this procedure, which also involves Banque du Liban.
The formula adopted on Wednesday provides, among other things, for members of the military and security forces, as well as army pensioners, to receive three extra salaries per month, excluding bonuses, which would raise their salaries to a level equivalent to nine times their pre-crisis salaries. Public administration employees should receive two extra salaries per month, for a total, also excluding bonuses, equivalent to nine times their pre-crisis salary.
For their part, the economic bodies, which bring together representatives of employers, have called on the government to "announce the real figures relating to the total cost of the compensation granted to the public sector." They questioned the source of the funds to be raised to cover these increases: "Are they part of the funds allocated in the budget and budget reserves for 2024, or, if not, how will the difference be financed?"