Civil servants to strike next week starting Tuesday

Civil servants in Lebanon will begin a strike on Tuesday, continuing through Sunday, to demand improvements to their salaries, as the country remains mired in an economic crisis since 2019.

“We announce a work stoppage from Tuesday through Sunday to protest the government’s disregard for our legitimate demands and its refusal to adjust salaries and pensions,” the Civil Servants League said Saturday in a statement. “What public administration employees are going through is no longer bearable,” it added, urging Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s government to “restore employees’ purchasing power” to pre-crisis levels.

The statement also called on the cabinet “to maintain all rights and benefits received by public sector workers and to incorporate them into base salaries until a new, fair salary scale is adopted.” It further stressed the need “to adopt a retirement charter for contract workers in public administrations.”

Salaries in the public sector remain one of the government’s most pressing challenges. Not only have wages failed to keep pace with inflation, but the civil service is also criticized for its large size, inefficiency, and high cost. Before the economic crisis, public sector salaries accounted for roughly one-third of the state budget, about $15 billion. The total number of civil servants, including the armed forces, is estimated between 200,000 and 300,000.