The EDL day-workers' union says some 900 workers have not been paid since September. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Day workers at Electricite du Liban staged a protest in front of the state power utility’s headquarters Tuesday and barred entry into the institution, while decrying the “lack of modification to their contracts” and “three months’ unpaid wages,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• The protesters in front of EDL demanded the implementation of the deal struck between the energy minister and the head of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers to “amend contracts,” which includes “an increase in salaries.”
• In a statement issued Monday, the daily workers’ union explained that 900 workers had not received payment since September. The statement also explained that Energy Minister Walid Fayad had recommended EDL “extend the workers’ contracts and amend them to include wage increases.”
• The EDL day-workers’ union issued a statement on Oct. 18 criticizing the “injustice and humiliation” they’ve faced and demanding they receive their owed wages along with fixed contracts that would include “insurance, social security, and raising the daily wage and transportation allowance to be equivalent to rising costs.”
• The statement had warned that if their demands were not met then they would begin a series of “escalating actions and a central protest regrouping workers across different districts.”
• A similar protest took place in Zahle on Tuesday, led by EDL day-workers hired via staffing service provider Tricom, which employs several hundred such daily workers for EDL’s account, who cited similar concerns over contracts, unpaid wages and demands for salary increases.