Conflict Incident Report

An Ogero employee Thursday held a bottle of gasoline over his head and threatened to set himself on fire if employees’ demands continued to go unanswered, at a protest against wage stagnation in the southern city of Sidon.

The man in question was calmed and ultimately prevented from setting himself on fire by fellow employees of the state-run telecommunications company.

Ogero employees have for months been holding protests across Lebanon, demanding that their wages be raised in accordance with a public sector salary scale law passed by Parliament last July.

Workers on Thursday blocked the entrance to the institution’s Sidon headquarters and briefly took the protest to a nearby road, blocking the passage of cars before security forces intervened and re-opened the road.

The salary scale law passed in 2017 mandated an increase in wages for all public sector workers, but the law has not yet been fully implemented.

Ogero’s executive board began holding strikes on Feb. 15, after the Finance Ministry failed to approve a draft salary scale adjustment for Ogero workers that was endorsed by the Telecommunications Ministry and submitted more than a month prior.

Ogero manages all of Lebanon’s landlines, in addition to providing internet services.