08 February 2008
BEIRUT: Association of Lebanese Industrialists president Fadi Abboud said Thursday that the index committee - a body tasked with tracking the prices of goods - would soon release a study on the actual cost of living in Lebanon. He added that based on this study, the committee would decided on a new minimum wage.
"There are lot of discrepancies between the statistics of the Central Statistical Bureau and those of the trade unions here," Abboud said.
The bureau says prices of consumer goods rose by 14 percent in 2007, while the General Labor Confederation (GLC) says the increase is 63 percent.
The GLC is demanding a LL850,000 minimum wage, up from the current LL300,000.
But the government and the private sector are not keen to increase the minimum wage, sources said. They added the government may offer to raise the minimum wage to LL450,000, a figure totally rejected by the trade unions.
The GLC is threatening protests if the government fails to implement a higher minimun wage. - The Daily Star
Copyright The Daily Star 2008.
