EDL contract workers protest over delayed salaries

BEIRUT: Electricite du Liban’s contract workers held a protest Tuesday outside of a company service provider, NEU-Debbas, to demand the payment of their suspended salaries for September.

The workers held a sit-in, the second in a week, facing NEU’s building near EDL’s headquarters in Mar Mikhael, urging the company to follow the example of the other two service providing firms.

While the workers once again burned tires at their protest, their tone switched from rage to courtesy.

“Our protest today in front of Debbas is because the company has not paid the contract workers their monthly salaries,” the workers’ spokesman Ahmad Shoeib told reporters. “We know that Mr. Robert Debbas is a self-made and prominent man in the Lebanese society, and we will not accept that his reputation is distorted.”

EDL’s contract workers had been on strike for several months, blocking the company’s headquarters to demand employment as full-timers at EDL. They have been employed by the three private service providers since 2012, and the companies’ contracts will end in 2016.

EDL decided to only employ 897 of the nearly 2,000 workers, who are demanding the employment of all those eligible, or a promise to be employed at EDL if the service providers’ contracts are not renewed in two years.

Shoeib’s nice words to the owner of NEU were echoed by the head of the contract workers’ league Lubnan Makhoul.

“You are a respected man, and I hope your image remains white as snow,” Makhoul said, addressing Debbas. “But we have a natural right to strike for our salaries because we have registered our children in schools.”

Makhoul explained that the talks between the workers, the EDL administration and public officials were positive, and that good news might be coming out soon.

However, Bilal Bajouk, another spokesperson for the workers, warned EDL and the service providers against printing bills. He said such behavior would lead to further escalation by the workers.

Not able to reach its offices for two months, EDL decided earlier this month to start printing bills from other offices, in order to collect money from clients and pay the company’s expenses.

This move undermined the significance of the workers’ protest, after they had held the bill collection as a strong card in the conflict with EDL administration.