BEIRUT: The General Labor Federation and the private sector failed again Friday to reach a common understanding on the ceilings of higher wages, prompting Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas to take his proposals to the Cabinet.

At the conclusion of the Price Index Committee meeting, Nahhas said deliberations at the committee failed to reach an agreement.

Citing an example of the deep differences between the two sides, Nahhas said that the private sector is not willing to increase the education and transportation allowances to the new salary package for employees.

Nahhas supported the position of the private sector concerning higher allowances, adding that the law apparently prohibits additional allowances.

The minister proposed instead to add these allowances to the basic salaries. Disagreements over how to implement Nahhas’ suggestion to enact a state-funded universal health-care coverage had also contributed to the committee’s inability to reach a compromise.

Nahhas had suggested, at a Price Index Committee meeting early November, a 16.4 percent wage hike, adding transportation and education allowances to basic salaries, and enacting a publically funded universal health care coverage for all Lebanese residents.

He said the plan would be funded through taxing real estate transaction profits and other similar taxes.

Despite the failure of the Price Index Committee deliberations, Nahhas said he would forward the committee’s comments to the Cabinet session.

He said he hoped the Cabinet would still adopt a comprehensive wage increase including the controversial universal health-care plan. Nahhas emphasized the issue would be a crucial subject at the Cabinet meeting.

“The economic and social destiny of four million citizens is more important than any other issue, including funding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon,” he said.

Nahhas made a point to slam the participants’ inability to endorse steps toward “building a welfare state.”

He stressed their refusal of the universal health care plan was rather aberrant and had exposed a deep lack in confidence in the ability of the Lebanese state to regenerate: “This is the first time in history employers as well as workers reject a publically funded health care coverage.

“Let us be clear that these deliberations exposed that all sides doubt the very ability of the state to revive. Different sides are only concerned about preserving their own benefits,” he added.

Lack of trust in the government was precisely cited by head of General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn as the reason behind rejecting Nahhas’ health care bid: “We cannot become dependent on an untrustworthy government and a political system that does not take into account social conditions.”

Ghosn reiterated the union’s insistence on realizing the wage increase through redrafting the Cabinet’s last October decree to make it compliant with the Shura Council’s ruling.

Nicolas Chamas, head of Beirut Chamber of Commerce, said the private sector had been flexible, conceding to the 16.7 percent increase suggested by Nahhas.

He reiterated the percentage a fair wage increase that reflects accumulated inflation since 2008.

But Chamas said that alleviating social conditions and providing health care were the government’s responsibility and should not be linked to the wage increase issue.

Chamas called on Nahhas to take economic hardships facing the private sector into consideration when forwarding the committee’s recommendations to the Cabinet meeting.

Hanna Gharib, head of the Secondary Teachers Association, warned that the wage increase should not be lower than what had been purposed by the government earlier.

“We have initiated strikes and sit-ins to go forward not backward,” he said.

Gharib criticized the government’s taxation system which he said was biased against the lower-income sections of society.

A mid-October wage increase decree had averted the country’s arguably biggest labor strike. It increased by LL200,000 for salaries under LL1 million and by LL300,000 for salaries between LL1 million and LL1.8 million.

The decree was then rejected by the Shura Council over the illegality of the ceiling excluding those who earn above LL1.8 million from the raise.

This prompted additional deliberations within the framework of the Price Index Committee in the hope of reaching a settlement.