Lebanon civil servants on strike amid wage hike crisis

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s civil servants are on strike to pressure the government to pay them recently approved wage hikes amid a new crisis over how to finance them.

The Cabinet is meeting on Tuesday to discuss new ways to finance the wages bill, estimated at $800 million. The law improving the wages, which had been in the works for years, was passed earlier this summer. But the constitutional Council earlier this week revoked a tax law to finance the bill, saying it violated the constitution.

The decision left the government scrambling for ways to finance the wage bill, amid pressure from public servants who expected their new salaries this month.

Government offices were shut on Tuesday, and hundreds of civil servants protested outside.

One poster simply read: “The dignity strike.”