Hundreds of newborns in Lebanon have found themselves without identification papers as a result of the ongoing strike led by thousands of public sector workers for over a month and a half. This strike exacerbates the crises faced by Lebanese citizens who are unable to obtain civil status extracts needed for visa applications, and who also cannot complete vehicle sales and purchases, ultimately hindering the entry of goods into Lebanon through the Port of Beirut, which threatens food security. Direct daily losses from the strike are estimated at around 12 billion Lebanese pounds, approximately 400,000 dollars, according to Labor Minister in the caretaker government, Mustafa Bayram.
Despite attempts to reach a settlement with employees, many are not returning to their workplaces. This has affected newborns, whose families cannot register them and obtain identification papers, and it impacts all civil registry transactions and more. A limited number of employees returned to work at the beginning of this week, with breaches of the strike occurring only in certain institutions and administrations, such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor, and the Ministry of Justice, among others, in response to a solution proposed by the Lebanese government that included benefits and incentives rejected by most strikers.
Nawal Nasr, head of the Public Administration Employees Union, confirmed that the strike would continue until further notice, stating that the head of the Central Inspection Office would convey the union's demands to the government, and next steps would depend on the level of response. Nasr noted that "the government offered what it called aids, incentives, and health contributions, but the amounts are very small."
Bishara Asmar, head of the General Labor Union, explained that the public sector has divided into parts, particularly between the public administration and the labor union encompassing public institutions and independent agencies. He noted that "after the administration announced the strike since mid-June, the union announced its strike demanding that its employees be included in the compensation approved by the government, which occurred after talks with the prime minister designate, leading to a return to work."
Asmar stated in a statement to "Asharq Al-Awsat" that "the traffic department might open its doors next week if the solution being worked on with the Ministry of Labor progresses as required," urging public administration to "accept the government's offer, which now secures about 3.5 salaries and ensures one or two workdays a week until other demands are met," adhering to the principle of "take and demand," allowing the dialogue to continue until the budget is approved to facilitate matters for people whose interests have been severely affected, putting us in confrontation with them.
Public administration employees are demanding wage adjustments that correspond to the rising cost of living, at a time when the value of all services has skyrocketed to dollars, with only employee salaries remaining pegged at the 1,500-pound exchange rate; salary values have now dropped to 5% of their previous worth amid a rising dollar exchange rate. They demand that salary values align with the banking dollar exchange rate (8,000 pounds per dollar, implying a five-fold increase), which is the lowest exchange rate currently adopted in Lebanon.
Salaries range between 700,000 pounds and about 4 million pounds monthly, which translates to roughly 23 to 133 dollars. Professor Maroun Khater, a researcher in financial and economic affairs, describes the employees' demands theoretically as "justified due to the depreciation of the Lebanese pound," but he points out that "the strike, in its economic and institutional dimension, reflects a significant problem: that the public sector is overloaded and unproductive," while noting that some who are demanding salary increases were not initially productive in their work and did not adhere to any attendance.
Khater stresses in a statement to "Asharq Al-Awsat" that "patchwork solutions, such as raising salaries or providing incentives and benefits in response to raising the customs dollar value, would aggravate the crisis, purely falling within the effort to buy time and postpone the issue." He further indicated that "the solution should encompass a comprehensive economic plan that does not solely focus on the public sector but addresses how to revive the entire economy," adding: "It is presumed that the public sector should be restructured or rationalized, not necessarily downsized, but through redistributing capabilities within this sector to make it productive and a source of revenue for the state."
The public sector has witnessed a significant increase in employee numbers, approaching 320,000, draining salaries before the crisis to nearly one-third of the country’s public financial budget, prompting the international community to request the government halt hiring in 2017 and cease correcting wages in any form following the approval of the salary scale in 2017 that raised employee salaries.
