Joint Committees Approve Employment of EDL Contract Workers, Bassil Slams Step

The joint parliamentary committees approved on Thursday the employment of qualified candidates who are currently contract workers at Electricite du Liban.

The decision led to loud cheers among the workers who had been asking for their rights by road closures and by blocking the entry of full-time employees to the premises of the EDL in Beirut’s Mar Mikhael area.

The move by the joint committees was made despite Change and Reform bloc MPs’ walkout from the meeting to allegedly protest some parts of the proposal.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is the son-in-law of Change and Reform leader Michel Aoun, did not attend the talks.

A member of the committee of EDL contract workers said their sit-in at the company’s headquarters will continue pending parliament’s approval of their full-time employment.

Later on Thursday, Bassil held a press conference after a meeting in Rabiyeh with the members of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

“Any accusations that we abandoned EDL contract workers are untrue,” said Bassil.

Bassil noted that he had “found a just solution for contract workers” before Thursday’s step.

“A group of 10 MPs, including Mohammed Qabbani, Antoine Saad, Fadi al-Haber, Samer Saade, Fouad al-Saad, Ayyoub Hmayyed, Antoine Zahra and Ammar Houri encouraged contract workers to demand that they become state employees in a manner that led to closing the institute,” Bassil charged.

He warned that institutes are being undermined “because the needs of state institutes are not being taken into consideration.”

“We would be uprooting the whole principle of civil service if we decided to hire 2,500 employees -- the equivalent of one third of current state employees,” Bassil cautioned.

“The draft law proposed today is telling citizens that those who are followers of certain leaders will have the privilege of being employed in state institutes after protesting and blocking roads,” he added.

Bassil also blamed the chronic power outages on “electricity theft,” accusing the aforementioned group of MPs of “not allowing equality among citizens.”