Legal assistants will observe work stoppage on Thursday, February 1 and Friday, February 2, with plans to return to work starting Monday, as reported to This Is Beirut. Though they will go back to their workplaces, the assistants will not perform their duties. This decision was made after a meeting held on Wednesday.
Legal assistants are contesting certain provisions of the 2024 budget adopted last Friday by Parliament, notably "the introduction of taxes and fees that do not take into account public sector salaries—which have not been adjusted," as emphasized by the Chairman of the Board of the Mutual Aid Fund for Legal Assistants, Judge Joseph Tamer.
In the absence of an official entity representing them, legal assistants decide on their own whether to participate in the work suspension or not. According to Judge Tamer, "The decision was made in accordance with the one decreed by the League of Civil Servants, which announced on Tuesday a total strike until February 9." All courts and commercial registers will be affected by the work suspension, which is not mandatory but risks paralyzing the functioning of the judiciary.
"When you consider that the salary of a legal assistant ranges between 18 million and 25 million Lebanese pounds, even the most honest civil servants will be forced to resort to alternative means to financially sustain themselves," Judge Tamer explains. According to a source, "Some civil servants may even take advantage of strikes and work stoppages to finalize pending procedures and, consequently, benefit from bribes."
The Lebanese public administration has embarked on such a move in protest against a "government that does not respect its promises and commitments and against a budget that does not provide for salary increases for civil servants." Among the demands of the League of Civil Servants, to which legal assistants also adhere, is an increase in the minimum monthly salary to at least USD 600.
And the judges? Currently, judges seem to be relying on the reserves of the Mutual Aid Fund. However, these reserves are limited. "There will come a time when the funds will no longer be sufficient to ensure dignified incomes for judges, which will cause more problems within the judiciary," Judge Tamer laments.
Since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019, the judiciary has suffered multiple blows, including political interferences, dissension among judges and repeated strikes that have hindered the proper functioning of judicial work.
The question remains: When will the problems of the Lebanese judiciary come to an end?
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