The Baabda courthouse. Photo ANI
Legal professionals in Lebanon observed a general sit-in on Thursday, halting work in all courthouse departments across the country, including prosecutors' offices, departments of investigating judges, summary judges' departments and traffic departments, reported the National News Agency (NNA).
The action was announced Tuesday in a statement from the Committee of Judicial Assistants, which declared a “total suspension of hearings and administrative tasks” on July 3 in solidarity with the League of Civil Servants of the Public Administration.
Civil servants from various government departments had already joined the strike called by the union earlier in the week. The strike, set to continue through July 4, was launched to protest what workers described as the government’s ongoing "disregard for their salary rights and their dignity.”
According to NNA, some employees at government offices in Hermel and Baabda went to work but refrained from processing any files.
Quoting the statement, the NNA reported that the sit-in will be followed by "escalation measures which will be announced in due course" if the government continues to ignore their demands. The Committee specifically demanded the adoption of a new salary scale "which restores the dignity of the public sector and properly remunerates legal staff as well as all employees of the public sector."
Law officers had held a similar strike last year, in February 2024, to protest the erosion of their salaries. The economic crisis of 2019 and the massive currency depreciation that followed have weakened public institutions and strained the salaries of civil servants, paid in Lebanese pounds.
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