BEIRUT: Electricity workers employed at a Mount Lebanon provider protested Tuesday the recent sacking of dozens of their colleagues.
The National National Agency said workers at private electricity company EPS protested outside their office in the Iqlim al-Kharroub village of Mazboud, days after the firm fired 36 people.
Among the three dozen sacked, around 20 are contract workers who had worked for state-run Electricite Du Liban before Energy Minister Gebran Bassil outsourced the management of the electricity network to EPS in 2012.
Workers at EPS had earlier told The Daily Star that they fear the company is preparing to announce a new round of layoffs.
Contract workers at the Tyre branch of EDL held a similar protest Monday in solidarity with their Mount Lebanon comrades.
Another service provider, Debbas Group’s NEU Company, is responsible for providing electricity to the districts of South Lebanon and the southern part of Mount Lebanon.
It has subcontracted EPS to manage several areas of Mount Lebanon, including Iqlim al-Kharroub.
The protests come less than than two months since contract workers ended a 4-month, nationwide strike.
The strike, during which workers blocked the EDL's Beirut headquarters and prevented the entry of any employee or executive, called for employing all of the 1,700 contract workers in EDL, or a promise that they would be employed after the end of the service providers’ contracts in 2016.
The final deal, brokered by Minister Akram Chehayeb, states that all of the workers would be employed after the current employees go into retirement.
But as EPS sacks workers, they worry that they would become ineligible to take the place of retirees at EDL.
No comments:
Post a Comment