Caretaker Telecoms Minister Johnny Corm at a press conference on Marc 29, 2023. (Credit: An-Nahar)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Telecoms Minister Johnny Corm on Wednesday urged employees of state operator Ogero, who have been on a strike since Friday amid several phone and internet outages, to suspend the action, which he described as "hasty."
The Ogero strike is the latest in a series of similar protests by civil servants — notably an ongoing eight-month strike by public administration employees — demanding improved compensation amid the Lebanese lira’s depreciation on the parallel market.
Ogero employees announced an open-ended strike on Friday to demand better working conditions, following a "warning" strike earlier last week.
"I do not have the authority to increase the salaries of employees, and the matter depends on a cabinet decision," Corm said in a press conference on Wednesday.
"Announcing the strike is a hasty decision, and it is not possible for me to approve the demands on my own, and if I were the authority, I would have approved them because they are rightful [demands]."
"Blaming the Telecoms Minister is unacceptable," Corm added.
On Saturday, Ogero announced that telephone stations in several regions of Lebanon were out of service due to excess pressure on the electrical generators powering them. Due to the workers' strike, internet and telephone outages are expected to take some time to remedy, Ogero added at the time.
"The fall of the telecoms sector threatens the security, economic and social situation as a whole," Corm said Wednesday. "I appeal to the officials — shoulder your responsibilities towards the sector."
Ogero employees also held a sit-in on Monday to reiterate their demands for improved salaries in front of the company's headquarters in Bir Hassan, an area in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Last August, Ogero employees ended a weeks-long strike, during which telecom outages proliferated across Lebanon, after former President Michel Aoun approved funding to raise their salaries.
Meanwhile, Ogero's Director-General Imad Kreidieh told local television channel MTV on Wednesday that Ogero's employees have little to do with the internet outages across the country, blaming the Lebanese state instead, which "has prevented Ogero, since 2019, from carrying out the necessary maintenance."
Telephone and internet stations are heavily dependent on private generators for power supply since state-run Électricité du Liban has been unable to meet demand.
Kreidieh said that many of those generators have stopped working, adding that Ogero "does not have the money to purchase [new ones] ... or purchase spare parts."
Asked whether the partial internet and phone outage would turn into a total one, Kreidieh responded: “Certainly, if the situation continues as it is today, regardless of the strike, the interruption will extend to all regions because the capabilities no longer exist."