BEIRUT: Employees at Rafik Hariri University Hospital announced Sunday that they would not admit any new patients to the emergency department of the hospital starting Monday morning, an escalation in a strike that began last week.
“[We announce] the complete closure of the emergency entrance starting Monday at 9:30 a.m.,” the union said in a statement released Sunday.
The strikers said their decision will be followed by “daily escalations” until their demands are met.
The employees of Beirut’s main public hospital are protesting the delay in receiving their salaries for the month of January and what they perceive as a lack of employment benefits.
“We were paid December’s salaries in January, but we still haven’t received January’s pay,” an employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star.
She explained that the controversy began with the delay of December’s wages, when the finance ministry claimed that it had not received a budget proposal from the health ministry to allow payments.
After Health Minister Wael Abou Faour insisted that he had sent the documents, the finance ministry admitted it had received the budget proposal but said that money that the hospital owes the ministry from old loans would be deducted from the budget.
“If they deduct this sum, the money won’t be enough to pay half our salaries,” the employee said.
In addition to the payment of their salaries, employees are demanding additional employment benefits in line with those of other public sector employees.
“This issue begins with the salaries matter, but does not end before achieving all the rightful demands for the employees considering the austerity they are suffering from and the absence of any of the warranties, incentives or rights that our fellow public sector employees enjoy,” the union’s statement said.
The launch of the strike coincided with the resignation of Faysal Shatila, the former chief of the hospital’s board.
Health Minister Abu Faour announced Wednesday that he accepted Shatila’s resignation, saying it allowed for the implementation of “rescue plan” to save the hospital.
Abu Faour had previously announced a plan of reforms in response to the hospital's financial deficit, which had caused a shortage in equipment and tools.
Shatila, on the other hand, said he resigned because this same rescue plan was never carried out by the government.
The hospital’s staff remained on strike despite Shatila's resignation, saying they would not go back to work unless officials promised to add a discussion of the hospital's current crisis to the Cabinet’s agenda.
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