BEIRUT: The same scenario is being played out at Electricite Du Liban, where striking contract workers Thursday prevented the entry of full-time employees trying to resume work after a weekslong involuntary interruption.
Outside the company headquarters in Mar Mikhael, hundreds of policemen stood guard with orders to act as a disengagement force between part-time and full-time electricity workers.
A security source told The Daily Star that police were ordered not to use force to open EDL’s doors, sealed by protesters for several weeks in their demand for full-time status at the state-run electricity company.
EDL has asked security forces to secure the entry of the employees into the building and other branches in the country to allow them to do their job, saying the company had already handed over custody of the building to security agencies.
The company called on its employees to report to duty Thursday and begin network repairs needed to address severe electricity rationing in the country, which the company blamed on the striking contract workers.
In a statement after a meeting of the EDL board Wednesday, the company said that the directors “unanimously agreed on the need for employees to return to the headquarters, all of its branches to resume work, the safety of investments to be preserved and needed repairs to be carried out on the network.”
The meeting was held at the Zouk Mikael Power Plant instead of the EDL headquarters in Beirut after striking contract workers prevented full-time employees from entering the premises by sealing off the entrances.
With the contract workers’ open-ended strike and the inability of maintenance teams to access equipment inside the company, the country has witnessed hourslong blackouts, prompting residents in Beirut’s southern suburbs to burn tires and block roads in protest.
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