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Conflict Incident Report
Judges stage strike over possible cuts of salaries, benefits, threaten escalation
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s judges began a two-day strike to protest a possible reduction to their salaries and benefits, a judicial source told The Daily Star. “If Parliament does not back down on some of the salary scale articles that deprive judges of their rights, then another meeting will be held to decide on escalatory moves,” the judges said in a statement after meeting with the Higher Judicial Council to discuss a proposed salary hike for public servants.
The judges said that public sector salary reform under consideration would end the judges’ solidarity fund, which pays judges twice their monthly salary every other month. The proposal would also reduce the judiciary’s summer recess from two months to one month, among other articles.
Calling their actions a warning, the judges stipulated, via their statement, that the judiciary would be in their offices during the strike but would not conduct any work, with one exception. “All court sessions and judicial reviews will be suspended until, except for the cases of detainees,” the statement said, referring to cases of suspected Islamist inmates.