Beirut: Electricite du Liban (EDL) contract workers, who number 1,400 and perform difficult tasks as they repair broken lines that are mostly above ground in populated areas, continued their protests demanding that their employment classification be adjusted.
Their goal is to regularise their statuses to benefit from health coverage, secure retirement packages, and obtain other privileges granted to state personnel.
A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri and his government instituted a hiring freeze, in a bid to reduce spending in all public departments.
Authorities are opposed to any swelling of the ranks because of future outlay commitments as openly acknowledged by Cesar Abi Khalil, the Minister of Energy, who announced that he could not and would not break the law to meet such demands.
“We are following the law,” Abi Khalil told media outlets, and referred to Law 287 that strictly limited the number of EDL jobs to 5,020 individuals.
Abi Khalil, who is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, agreed to meet with several representatives on May 2, but further clarified his views when he stated that the protesting EDL workers’ demands for employment classification were like “having a table for 10 people, while trying to fit 100 people on it”.
He condemned protesters for interfering with the smooth running of the ministry, after several angry demonstrators blocked roads around the ministry, set tyres ablaze, and even prevented Abi Khalil from entering his office.
The road was eventually reopened after the May 2 appointment was secured though Abi Khalil denied making such an engagement, or granting a meeting. It was unclear whether the two sides would gather on that date.
As EDL contract workers clashed with authorities in the past and blocked access to the customer service gate at EDL headquarters, Internal Security Forces prepared for eventual escalatory acts of protest, which did not bode well.
Parallel to the EDL contract workers’ protests, National Social Security Fund [Daman al-Ijtima‘ih] employees demonstrated on Tuesday as well, objecting to two articles in the draft budget that, they claim, might literally bankrupt the state’s insurance and pension funds.
Employees of the NSSF insist that items 54 and 68 of the proposed state budget, which would introduce exemptions for both the government as well as business owners from paying assessed dues to the NSSF, ought to be abrogated. There is a fear that the NSSF, which is already carrying a $2-billion deficit, would simply go bankrupt.
