The president of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers Bechara Asmar. (Credit:NNA)
BEIRUT — General Confederation of Lebanese Workers president Bechara Asmar on Friday issued a list of reforms, including a daily transportation allowance of LL100,000, that he says the Lebanese government must implement to counterbalance the negative impacts of sharp fuel price increases. The statement was issued from the GCLF headquarters, where the land transport unions convened Friday and announced a strike starting next Wednesday to demand subsidies and financial support for its members.
Here’s what we know
• In addition to “raising the [daily] transportation allowance allowance to LL100,000,” the GCLW head called for financial support measures for public and private employees, including “removing the VAT for gasoline and diesel tanks” and “increasing salaries for the duration of a year.”
• The transportation allowance law (public employee law n.266 23/10/1993 amended by decree 538 in 2008) originally guaranteed LL8,000 per workday, but Hassan Diab’s government increased this to LL24,000 in August as fuel prices rose with the partial removal of subsidies. The demand for a further increase in this allowance comes after the land transport unions’ president Bassam Tleis warned that the increase in fuel prices would be accompanied by “new public transport prices the public wouldn’t be able to afford.”
• Tleis told L’Orient Today that the strike scheduled for next week is to expedite the implementation of a subsidy and financial support program for public transportation workers that both the government and the land transport unions have already agreed on.
• Also among Asmar’s propositions is the inclusion of worker representatives in the fuel price setting process. The statement calls for the government to hold regular meetings with GCLW representatives on this issue.
• Asmar additionally encouraged state intervention in the fuel market with an emphasis on monitoring importers that are illicitly stockpiling fuel.
• Official fuel prices were last changed on Wednesday, with the prices of 20 liters of 95-octane and 98-octane gasoline rising by 25 percent, to LL302,700 and LL312,700 respectively, while the same quantity of diesel increased to LL270,700, a 15 percent hike.