Ogero Employees Syndicate: It is Time for the State to Assume Its Responsibilities

The Ogero Employees Syndicate stressed in a statement the "necessity for the state to assume its responsibilities in addressing the conditions resulting from the administrative reality, and that the hardworking daily workers should not be left alone to face the consequences of choices they had no part in making."

The statement added: "The daily workers joined the work in response to an actual operational need imposed by the requirements of the continuity of the telecommunications facility, and they bore, for years, the responsibility of contributing to maintaining the networks and ensuring the continuity of services, especially in the most difficult security and economic conditions. To this day, they still perform essential operational and technical tasks that are indispensable for the continuity of this vital facility. These workers were not the decision-makers in adopting the legal framework under which they were employed, so it is not permissible, legally and justly, for them alone to bear the consequences of a reality they did not cause to emerge, noting that an economic and living expectation arose from this reality for them and their families, so is it permissible to stop it and issue a death sentence against them, given that cutting off livelihoods is like cutting off necks."

It continued: "In light of the developments, the responsibility for completing the handling of this file now falls on the government and the Parliament, by taking the initiative to adopt a legislative and regulatory solution that balances respecting the rights of daily workers, ensuring the continuity of the telecommunications facility, and safeguarding the public interest. Based on its national responsibility, the syndicate calls on the Lebanese government and the Parliament to take the initiative, without delay, to prepare and adopt the required solution, taking into account the rights of workers who have performed actual and essential work in serving this facility, while at the same time ensuring the legal and administrative stability necessary for the continuity of the telecommunications sector. The syndicate announces that it will keep its meetings open in full coordination with the General Labor Union to follow up on this file, and gives the relevant authorities an opportunity to immediately begin preparing and adopting the desired solution, warning that continued delay or negligence will lead it to take gradual escalatory union steps, to be announced in due course, within legal frameworks, and taking into account the requirements of the public interest and the continuity of basic services. The syndicate believes that what is happening cannot under any circumstances be separated from what is being prepared for Ogero as a leading institution serving all segments of the Lebanese people."

It concluded: "It is time for the state to assume its full responsibility, and to take the initiative to adopt the solution required by law and the public interest. The daily workers did not create this crisis, and they should not be the ones to pay its price. Nor should the telecommunications facility, with its national, economic, and social importance, remain hostage to the delay in adopting this solution."