EDL Contract Workers to Resume Strike to Protest Cabinet Procrastination

Electricite du Liban contract workers threatened on Thursday to resume strikes to protest the cabinet's procrastination to carry out their demands.

A delegation representing the contract workers held an “urgent” meeting with head of the General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn, warning that they will escalate their endeavors if the government failed to carry out an agreement concerning their full-time employment.

“We will hold a sit-in on January 9 to take a final decision over the escalatory measures,” a statement issued after the meeting said.

They reiterated demands for the company to pay them their June and July salaries.

For his part, Ghosn called on the cabinet to carry out the agreement held with the contract workers.

In August, EDL hourly-wage employees ended a three-month open-ended sit-in at the company’s headquarters in Mar Mikhael in Beirut after striking a deal with the cabinet.

The agreement between the contract workers and the government includes the company’s payment of the contract workers salaries till the month of July 2012, the full time employment of some workers by sitting for a closed exam as called for by a draft law approved by the parliament, according to the vacancies at EDL.

The deal also includes giving those who don’t qualify to become permanent employees the financial compensations in exchange for their 10 or 20 years of service at the company and transferring the rest to private-service providers.