Civil servants have announced that they will extend the strike, which they have been observing for the past two weeks, until Friday, June 23. They added that a series of sit-ins will be organized in parallel to the strike.
In a press release published on Sunday evening, the League of Civil Servants denounced the Ministry of Finance for declaring that it will not be able to pay salaries, social assistance, and pensions for the public sector ahead of the Adha holiday on June 28 due to lack of funds.
Parliament has to approve issuing additional letters of credit in order to secure the funds to disburse public sector salaries.
“Throwing the ball into Parliament’s court is unjustified. Although that procedure is legal, overriding it would not be a first, since deviations to skirt the law have always been found,” as stipulated in the text.
In the statement, civil servants questioned the application of the law and the Constitution “when certain segments of the civil service are entitled to withdraw their salaries at the exchange rate of LBP 60,0000, while the large majority does it at the rate of LBP 86,300.”
They asked: How lawful and constitutional is it for the government to sell services such as water, electricity and telecommunications in “fresh” dollars, and to pay the salaries of employees at a rate of LBP 1,500 to the dollar?
How legal is it that the salaries of public service executives are paid entirely in fresh dollars while a small increase for average employees is ignored?
