The entrance to a mechanical inspection center in Lebanon. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Hundreds of employees and contractors of mechanical inspection centers for cars held a sit-in on Tuesday in front of the vehicle registration and technical control center in Dekwaneh, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
• The workers’ sit-in comes in reaction to a decision made last Friday by caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi to cancel the mechanical examination of cars until further notice.
• According to the NNA, the president of the mechanical inspection workers’ union Hassan Hassan considered it “a decision which does not take into account the situation of 450 employees in the sector as well as the difficult living conditions.” Hassan also said that he believes the cancellation of the mechanical review is “putting workers out [of work]” and warned that “further steps will escalate if a fair solution is not found.”
• The mechanical inspection center workers have repeatedly gone on strike due to the deterioration of their working conditions as an now two-and-a-half-year-old unprecedented economic crisis continues to shape the country. The union of used car importers organized a sit-in in the same location on May 11, to protest the closure of inspection centers and unmet promises of reopening.