Abdallah introduces two bills concerning public sector employees

BEIRUT — MP Bilal Abdallah on Tuesday introduced two bills in Parliament, one concerning public sector contract workers and the other relating to the accumulation of years of seniority for civil servants, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA).

The first bill allows public sector contract workers to choose, at the end of their service, between a severance indemnity paid by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), or a retirement pension.

The second bill enables civil servants employed and covered by the retirement system to “accumulate their previous years of service” in public administration, the Lebanese University, Parliament or the Public Sector Employees’ Cooperative, whether that service was permanent or temporary, contractual, daily, or on a per-task basis.

Civil servants held a strike in July after the government approved a series of pay raises for several categories of high-ranking officials, a move that several public sector unions described as “contemptuous,” as public employees’ salaries have still not been adjusted to their pre-2019 crisis levels, when the Lebanese pound underwent a severe depreciation.