Access to socio-eco rights

Lebanon's journalists, media workers, photographers and art directors responded to the call by the Lebanese Press Editors Syndicate to hold a sit-in in the Martyrs Square this "in protest against the reality in which their sector is lying, and to uphold their threatened profession."The Director-General of the Ministry of Information, Hassan Falha, stood in solidarity with the protestors, blaming the current media reality on “everyone without exception”."

Trash has piled up in the streets of the city of Sidon as workers of the city’s solid waste sorting plant have been striking since earlier this week over unpaid wages. Employees gathered Friday for the third day in a row to prevent trucks from entering the plant in Nabatieh’s Siniq, south of Sidon. Around 450 workers have not been paid their wages due to the state’s 13-month delay in paying the plant for treating the waste of Sidon and more than 12 other municipalities in Sidon and Zahrani Municipal Union. 

Employees at state-run telecommunications company Ogero went on strike across Lebanon to oppose cuts to their salaries proposed in this year’s draft budget. The allocations to Ogero earmarked for wages and salaries witnessed a significant reduction in the budget referred to Parliament from the Finance and Budget Committee.

Many state employees across Lebanon went on strike and some gathered in Martyrs' Square in protest against the draft 2019 state budget as lawmakers convened to discuss it.

The administrative committee of the League of Public Administration Employees called for a general strike in all administrations to protest the budget. The articles protested by the employees include Article 82, which would give employees 15 days of annual vacation instead of 20, and Article 90, which would require them to work for 25 years instead of 20 years before retiring.