It was reported in the news:
Next Monday, a meeting will be held in the government palace, headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and in the presence of Finance Minister Youssef Khalil, in order to present a set of proposals related to ending the public sector employees’ strike. Preparations were made for the proposals that will be presented in this session, in a meeting held at the Basil Fleihan Institute, where a paper is being prepared that includes a gradual increase in the wages of workers in the public sector without any mention of the form of this increase, or to finance it, whether through monetary policy or through the treasury.
According to the information that has been kept secret, Finance Minister Youssef Al-Khalil is inclined to a basic proposal related to granting public sector workers a gradual increase that would double the monthly salaries, which today amount to two salaries (one original and one social assistance) to three salaries immediately, and then increase it at the beginning of the next year to Four salaries per month, then after seven months to five salaries. Practically, the salaries will be doubled during a period that extends up to the first of July next year, two and a half times.
A number of general managers had proposed, in meetings called by the President of the Civil Service Council, Nisreen Mashmoushi, the correction of public sector wages through a monetary mechanism such as that granted to judges, but not more than 30% of the salary that is supposed to be converted into dollars at the regular rate of 1507.5 pounds on average. , then to the lira at the price of 8000 liras. According to sources in the Banque du Liban, it is not possible to transfer all public sector salaries to a number exceeding 300,000 employees according to this mechanism, because the cash cost will be enormous, as the cash mass to pay these wages will rise from 800 billion pounds per month to 4,300 billion pounds.
It is also suggested, in the same context, that public sector employees be granted amendments to the allocations related to hospital and educational benefits, but the matter is still not clear yet.
Mashmoushi had contacted Prime Minister Najib Mikati and promised her to find a solution. She refused to tell Al-Akhbar what the proposals will be on the agenda of next Monday’s meeting, but she said that her personal opinion is that the solution should be in the interest of the employees and the public interest as well, and that it is only through public finances. What she did not say is that she refuses that the solution be through monetary policy and through the Banque du Liban.
In any case, all that is presented to date on the front of correcting the wages of workers in the public sector, in all its forms and ramifications, is one of two things: correcting wages at rates lower than what is due in exchange for an increase in the customs dollar, or correcting wages by approving their conversion into dollars through decisions issued About the Governor of the Banque du Liban. In this sense, it becomes understandable the purpose of the statement made by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri when he asked to freeze the decision of the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, according to which he granted judges an increase in wages 5.3 times what they were with a single penny of him financed by monetary policy. Berri pointed out that “this disparity will lead to bigger collapses than the current financial and economic collapse, and it will have ominous social and economic repercussions.” And this is indeed what Salama reacted to quickly and froze the decision, but does this mean that Berri will make a deal with Mikati to pass the customs dollars in order to finance the wage correction through the treasury?
Until yesterday, the Ministry of Finance was preparing the expected financial scenarios for the decisions that will be taken and their cost to the treasury. In other words, the wage correction in the public sector is treated as an event isolated from the essence of the crisis in Lebanon, but rather as a marginal symptom that can be dealt with in an accounting manner that takes into account the financial impact on the treasury, expenditures and revenues. But this does not reach the content of the discussion about the origin of the economic policies that must be reconsidered and the priorities for advancement, especially since everyone in Lebanon is still stuck on the issue of distributing losses.