The strike by Lebanese public sector employees on Monday paralyzed government institutions as they demanded adjustments to their salaries and transportation allowances, noting that their wages were no longer sufficient to reach their workplaces. Their crises worsened due to the state's inability to disburse necessary financial entitlements and assistance. Public sector salaries have deteriorated to their lowest levels due to the economic crisis that has been plaguing the country for over two years, with the dollar surpassing 30,000 Lebanese pounds in the black market while salaries are still paid at the rate of 1,500 pounds.
In recent months, the government has taken steps to maintain public service, including financial assistance and raising the transportation allowance to 64,000 pounds per day, equivalent to $2.3. It also reduced official working days in departments with the fewest employees. However, the assistance has not been paid regularly amidst the liquidity crisis faced by state institutions.
The public sector has seen an increase in employee numbers, reaching around 230,000, with their salaries consuming nearly a third of the country's public budget before the crisis. This prompted the international community to urge the government to halt hiring in 2017 and to refrain from any salary adjustments after the approval of a salary scale that raised employee wages. Recent Lebanese government discussions with the International Monetary Fund regarding a way out of the living crisis curtailed any attempts to adjust wages, substituting them with financial assistance to employees to ensure that governmental functions continue.
However, the erosion of wages due to the rising dollar exchange rate, coupled with the government’s lifting of subsidies on fuels, communications, food, and medicines, has deprived employees of the ability to sustain themselves, leading to repeated warnings about strikes, which were carried out yesterday. Official departments in various regions complied with the Public Administration Employees Association's call for an open-ended strike starting yesterday "in protest against the deteriorating conditions, amidst the government's neglect of their living demands, primarily wage adjustments and increased transportation allowances."
The capital and other regions, including the north, the mountains, the Bekaa, and the south, were largely affected by closures. Acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati held a phone call with Finance Minister Youssef Khalil yesterday, discussing matters regarding salaries and the dues owed to employees and emphasizing the need to pay them on time without delays. Mikati affirmed that "employees' rights are sacred, and the government understands their outcry, striving as much as possible to secure the necessities for survival during this difficult phase," while stressing the need for state administrations and public institutions to continue functioning effectively to manage employee affairs and secure revenues needed by the state.
Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram, after meeting with Mikati, remarked that "the public sector is currently the most suffering and affected." He noted Mikati’s affirmation that "the issue of salaries cannot be compromised since they, however fragile, are the last element of social security," adding that "salaries are fixed, though there are some disruptions and delays affecting the tables due to the shortage of employees."
Bayram assured employees that "it is prohibited to interfere with salaries, or else the state will collapse," calling for the unions to meet with him. He stated that the open-ended strike, while justified, would create confusion and impact revenues and administrative operations. Unions are pressuring to raise the value of social financial assistance and adjust the transportation allowance. The head of the General Labor Union, Bishara Asmar, is set to meet with Prime Minister Mikati today to address these issues.
Asmar told "Asharq Al-Awsat" that addressing the transportation allowance's value and implementing it "is a top priority," explaining that Lebanese authorities approved a decree to raise it to 64,000 pounds, but a lack of financial appropriations has prevented implementation. The Finance Minister has not disbursed this outside the 2022 public financial budget, which has not yet been approved by the parliament. He noted that "the amounts allocated under social protection are no longer sufficient," especially since the government had approved a social assistance amount equal to half a monthly salary, ranging between 1.5 million (about $55) and 3 million pounds (about $110) monthly, which is included in the unapproved budget.
Asmar stated that he would discuss this issue in the Economic and Social Council tomorrow with the Labor Minister; he will demand the transportation allowance for both the private and public sectors to be raised to 150,000 pounds per day (approximately $6) and social assistance to be increased to between 2 million and 6 million pounds monthly for the public sector.
The law in Lebanon sets the minimum wage at 675,000 pounds, which was equivalent to $450 when the exchange rate was 1,515 Lebanese pounds; however, it does not exceed $25 today, which is less than the cost of a 20-liter tank of gasoline. An employee in the fifth category earns a salary equal to 950,000 pounds, while the salary for the fourth category is 1,430,000 pounds, and for the third category, it is 2,200,000 pounds.
For the second category, salaries hover around 3 million pounds, while top-tier employees in the first category start at 4.5 million pounds, reduced to about $170. The highest administrative salaries reach up to 9,085,000 pounds.
These wage reductions also affect military and judicial salaries, with judges’ salaries plummeting from $6,200 before the crisis to current levels, and the same decline applies to University of Lebanon professors, whose salaries decreased from $5,617 before the crisis to less than $300 today, while the earnings of teaching staff have drastically fallen.
