A Lebanese Red Cross ambulance parks in front of Rafik Hariri University Hospital. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Employees at Rafik Hariri University Hospital, a leading public hospital in treating COVID-19 patients in Lebanon and a major inoculation center, went on strike Thursday to protest the deterioration of their salaries.
Here’s what we know:
• A group of employees announced in a statement that they have called for an “open general strike” until “injustice is lifted” and employees are treated fairly. The hospital’s employees previously asked for a raise, which has not been given, the statement says. RHUH employees have also denounced what they called a “lack of any appreciation” by the management.
• Most health care employees’ salaries are set in lira and have not been adjusted for soaring inflation, even though the national currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value since it started drifting from the official, LL1,507.5 peg to the US dollar. It is now trading at LL18,250 to the greenback.
• An RHUH spokesperson told L’Orient Today that the hospital remains fully operational and that the management is in negotiations with the employees.