The civil servants are demanding a revaluation of their wages, which have been unchanged since the start of the economic and financial cataclysm, in 2019.
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The last dispatch posted on the trilingual site of the National Information Agency (Ani) dates from Friday July 22, in the early morning: written in Arabic, she announces the strike of journalists of this official organization attached to the ministry of Information, whose news feeds the Lebanese media. Its employees have joined the current skating movement within the public administration since mid-June, which leaves the spectrum of total state paralysis. Dysfunctions have worsened since the start of the economic crisis in 2019.
For strikers, it is no longer possible to continue with wages – in Lebanese books – which have remained unchanged despite the hyperinflation and the loss of value of the national currency. Transport allowances, upward reviews, have not been paid since spring, which worsens frustration. “The public sector is one of the main victims of the crisis. For many employees, the drop in purchasing power is such that coming to work is no longer meaningful, even less with the price of gasoline”, notes Sami Zoughaib, economist at Lebanese think tank The Policy Initiative.
In administrations, everything turns in slow motion: with the strike, the wait is lying down to obtain an identity card or a certified university diploma. The efficiency had already plunged before: in the ministries, for lack of electricity, computers are stopped for several hours a day. In a report on the impact of the crisis in the public sector in 2020-2021, the Basil Fuleihan Finance Institute (IOF), an official organization, points to service interruptions (road maintenance, water supply and electricity, etc. ) and alert on the risk of an increasing collapse.
The sling could worsen
“With the strike, absenteeism has worsened. We operate with 5 % or 10 % of” full -time “workforce, says a civil servant of the Ministry of Health under the cover of anonymity, because he ‘is not allowed to speak with the press. Flexibility in face-to-face, induced by the COVVI-19 pandemic, was maintained in various administrations to deal with the difficulties of civil servants. “Working from the house is a nightmare, with electricity cuts, the Internet. No costs are covered by the State,” says a striker who requested anonymity.
According to the official of the Ministry of Health, who has not joined the disengagement, urgent services, such as admissions to hospitals, continue to be managed on a daily basis. But the sling could worsen: civil servants have been paid late for June, and they may not receive their July salary if the payroll service at the Ministry of Finance continues its strike – negotiations are in Classes. This would have an impact on the security forces (army, police), which have so far not joined the movement.
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