Access to socio-eco rights

Dozens of Electricite Du Liban contract workers on morning protested the late payment of wages by demonstrating on the Corniche al-Nahr road, blocking traffic for 15 minutes, according to a security source.

A national federation of labor unions (FENASOL) and representatives from Sultan Center - a large retail company - discussed how the rights of workers can be protected following Sultan Center’s August downsizing announcement. Sultan Center – a Kuwait-based company known in Lebanon for its upscale TSC supermarket chain – has reportedly not paid their employees for several months. After the meeting, the two groups decided to hold a sit-in in front of Sultan Center’s offices.

Retired military personnel took to the streets to voice their opposition to the “minimal and delayed” raises provided for them by the new salary scale. They are trying to put pressure on the government to make them pay the raise to us directly, without any postponement, and raise it to an amount equal to that of all other public sector employees Protestors were split into two different groups – one protesting near Parliament and the other near the Finance Ministry, preventing employees from entering.

Protesters congregated at Beirut’s Riad al-Solh Square regarding a number of demands as lawmakers attended a Parliament session in the nearby Nijmeh Square. A group of around 50 protesters made up of contract workers at state institutions, high-school teachers and Civil Defense employees who had previously been laid off gathered in the downtown area to demand that officials reconsider their varying demands. The public administration contract workers called for permanent employment contracts, urging MPs to treat them “fairly” and “with respect.”