EDL contract workers protest over unpaid wages

Contract workers at Electricite du Liban, who forced employees working in the Mar Mikhael offices of the company to evacuate Wednesday before the 4 p.m. shift began, will hold a meeting Thursday to decide on future action. The workers were protesting the state-run company’s failure to pay their salaries for two months. Over the past months, they have staged protests to demand full-time employment at the company. In a statement issued later Wednesday, EDL argued that legal issues were behind its refusal to pay contract workers their June salaries. The statement said EDL had made the required legal arrangements to pay May salaries but not for June, arguing that the workers should have joined private service providers by no later than June 2. “[Paying June salaries] would violate the contracts signed with service providers and could prompt monitory bodies to subject EDL to questioning,” the statement read. Payments to bill collectors, the statement added, are awaiting verification from the Energy and Finance ministries. “Some contractual bill collectors are retaining bills and funds collected from citizens and have not yet settled these amounts,” the statement added. The workers said they would block entrances to the EDL offices in Mar Mikhael Thursday, and told the company’s employees not to come to work. The Internal Security Forces were able to cut the metal chains workers placed around the gate facing Charles Helou Highway. Parliament endorsed a bill Monday that would enable many contract workers at EDL to become full-time employees of the state-run company.