Committee approves employment of EDL contract workers

The parliamentary committee tasked with discussing a law authorizing full employment for contract workers with Electricite Du Liban instructed EDL Thursday to extend full employment to those who are qualified. The contract workers will first be put through a selection round. This issue will resolve more than two months of protest and an open-ended strike that left EDL struggling to conduct vital repairs and collect bills. As result, the power supply has dwindled across the country. Free Patriotic Movement MPs withdrew from the session held in Nejmeh Square in protest of some clause in the committee’s final decision. Energy Minister Gebran Bassil was absent from the session. Protests by contract workers erupted when private service providers, contracted previously by the Energy and Water Ministry, prepared to commence work in June. An escalation in protests prompted the Cabinet to ask security forces to clamp down on the protests and secure some EDL premises occupied by the protesting workers last week. The part-time and contract workers have rejected employment by the private companies and instead demand full employment at EDL. They say full employment would help compensate for many years of poor employment conditions they faced.