Civil servants strike to demand new salary

Civil servants carried out a general strike Tuesday at various ministries and public institutions to denounce the government's failure to approve the long-awaited new salary scale for the public sector. The strike came in compliance with a call by the Union Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees. The Union called on civil servants to protest the Cabinet's move to exclude adjustments to their salary scale from the 2012 state budget. Public school teachers have boycotted marking the official examinations of Grades 9 and 12. They are demanding a salary scale that would give them and all other public sector employees the raise that the private sector received in January. Civil servants arguing for the new wage scale say that approximately 600,000 families would benefit from it. Standing outside the headquarters of the ministries of social affairs, industry, education and others, hundreds of public sector employees held up signs that read: “We ask for a raise that corresponds to the high cost of living.” Information Ministry staff held a sit-in in front of their office at 10 a.m. while another sit-in took place outside the Baalbek Serial at around 10.30 a.m. Employees at the department of Iskan (housing loans) also held a sit-in in front of their offices at 10 a.m. From: The Daily Star