Telecom employees on open strike, December 5, 2022. (Credit: NNA)
Employees of Lebanon's cell phone operators, Alfa and Touch, began an open strike on Monday until their working conditions are improved, after negotiations with caretaker Telecom Minister Johnny Corm failed.
"The promises and commitments of those in charge have not been fulfilled," the workers said in a statement issued Sunday evening. "After reaching negative results and while those concerned have refused to grant us what is our right according to the collective labor contracts, we announce a work stoppage starting Monday in the mobile phone companies Alfa and Touch," the statement added.
"Employees are entitled to a five percent salary increase per year, an increase they have not received since 2018," the president of the cell phone employees' union, Marc Aoun, told L'Orient-Le Jour on Monday.
The Alfa and Touch workers and employees' union held a warning strike and sit-in last Friday to protest "political patronage and dependence on promotions and material incentives" within the telecoms companies, "which discriminate between employees in the same department and company."
In front of the Touch building in downtown Beirut on Monday, Aoun detailed these accusations to L'Orient-Le Jour. According to Aoun, during the months before and after the parliamentary elections, "the minister has granted salary increases and/or promotions to nearly 300 people, including from Kesrouan and Zgharta," referring to confessional and political privileges. "Some 20 percent of employees received such an increase ... [and] we asked that this be the case for everyone. Alfa and Touch took this into account in their budgets, which were then sent to the minister but which he refused."
Touch denies the strike
If the employees are on strike, the management of Touch is not.
On Sunday evening, following the statement from the cell phone employees' union, the company followed up with another statement declaring that Monday "would be a normal working day, as well as the days to come" and that "all employees will work as usual to serve subscribers."
As the demonstrators gathered in front of Touch headquarters on Monday, management again confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour that they were not on strike, citing a new statement issued that morning.
While apologizing for having to close its headquarters "for a short period," it reiterated that its services were operational for its subscribers. Aoun assured to L'Orient-Le Jour on Monday that the strike will continue until employees of these two operators obtain their rights.
This is not the first time that the employees of Alfa and Touch are on strike. In September, demanded a salary increase from the caretaker Minister of Telecommunications, before ending their strike with a sealed agreement, the details of which were not provided to the press.
Employees of the state-owned, fixed-line operator Ogero also called an open strike that lasted more than two weeks to demand higher wages and better working conditions. This strike ended after former president Michel Aoun signed two decrees on the rights of telecommunications staff.
Monday's strike also comes two days before the holding of a parliamentary session that will discuss the formation of a parliamentary committee of inquiry dedicated to the Ministry of Telecommunications.
The debates will be based on an audit of the ministry's accounts carried out by the Court of Auditors, as well as the results of an investigation by financial prosecutor Ali Ibrahim, dating from 2019 on cases of squandering and misappropriation of public funds. The prosecution was initiated against three former ministers: Nicolas Sehnaoui (Free Patriotic Movement, 2011-2014), Boutros Harb (Independent, 2014-2016) and Jamal Jarrah (Future Movement, 2016-2018).