The president of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL), Beshara al-Asmar. (Credit: NNA)
On Saturday, the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers (CGTL) warned authorities about a “social imbalance that risks leading to strikes and protests,” calling for an increase in the minimum wage in the private sector and the integration of state subsidies into the salaries of public sector employees.
Lebanon’s most powerful union urged the government to take “a responsible and national stance” and to engage in “serious dialogue” aimed at “logically adjusting the minimum wage in the private sector, granting a cost-of-living increase across various salary scales, and incorporating the state aid given to public sector workers into their salaries.”
“We are heading toward a state of serious social imbalance that produces strikes, sit-ins, and street protests,” the CGTL said in a statement published by the official National Information Agency (NNA).
“Your housing and rent are indexed to the market dollar, your food basket is priced in the market dollar, your expenses, taxes and services are in the market dollar, your schools are too, with annual increases linked to the market dollar, your hospitalization or its difference is in the market dollar, transportation or car costs and maintenance with fuel and heating fuel are priced in the market dollar, and the government has access to your salary, whether you work in the public or private sector, [noting that] salaries have been frozen since 2019,” the CGTL reminded workers.
“Everything is being taken from you, even your savings in the banks, while those responsible hand you crumbs of what remains of the market dollar — officials who seek to divide, give to whom they want, deprive whom they want, and also raise fuel prices for everyone to cover part of their rights,” the union further denounced.
On May 7, Labor Minister Mohammed Haidar proposed a 50 percent increase in the minimum wage to 28 million Lebanese pounds (28 million LL), equivalent to about $312 at the current rate of 89,500 LL per dollar. However, this incomplete proposal was rejected by the CGTL and other unions. CGTL president Beshara al-Asmar criticized the plan for only adjusting the minimum wage without changes to other salary scales. He also denounced the increase as far too low and had already threatened street protests as a form of pressure.
Lebanese workers’ salaries have collapsed amid the sharp depreciation of the Lebanese pound since October 2019. Before the economic crisis, the minimum wage was set at 675,000 LL — roughly $450 at the official exchange rate at the time of 1,507.5 LL per dollar.
