Public Sector Strike Cripples Cash-Strapped Lebanon

BEIRUT (AP) —

A man uses an ATM from a closed fortified Credit Libanais bank branch in Sidon, Lebanon on Monday. (REUTERS/Aziz Taher)

Tarek Younes was once solidly middle class and felt he helped contribute to society as an inspector in the Lebanese government’s consumer protection agency. But the country’s economic free-fall has eroded his income and civic pride.

In his desperation, Younes has joined tens of thousands of public sector employees across the country in an open-ended strike that has already lasted for six weeks.

The protest of the civil servants who form the backbone of government signals further erosion of Lebanon’s public institutions, already struggling to afford their most basic operating costs.

The strike gives a bleak preview of how Lebanon could sink even deeper, should officials continue to delay decisive action on key financial and administrative reforms sought by the International Monetary Fund to make Lebanon’s comatose economy viable again.

Meanwhile, the protest further disrupted life in Lebanon, with even the most basic government services on hold. Court cases have been delayed. Identity cards, birth certificates and school transcripts are not being issued. Air traffic controllers announced that they would stop working nights in August.

“I don’t know how we’re thinking about economic recovery, if you have that many people who were once middle class now living in poverty,” Younes told The Associated Press. “We are extending our hand and making compromises, but the government needs to do so as well and give us some of our rights.”

The government has not increased wages for public sector workers since the onset of the country’s fiscal crunch in late 2019, during which the Lebanese pound lost over 90% of its value against the dollar. On top of that, food, gasoline and medicine prices are up sharply due to high inflation.

Lebanon’s bickering ruling political parties have stalled in putting together an economic recovery plan and reaching a deal with the IMF for a bailout program to restructure its crippled banks and reform its pulverized economy.

Lebanon’s public sector was weak even before the crisis began in late 2019, said Sami Zoughaib, an economist at Beirut-based think tank The Policy Initiative. He described it as bloated, inefficient and marred by political patronage and corruption.

“The elite used public employment as a tool in their clientelistic practices to garner political support,” he said. “A bunch of them are ghost employees who are there only to get their checks but never show up to work.”

Meanwhile, Younes anxiously shuffles papers at his desk at the consumer protection unit as he takes a phone call. It’s another scuffle at a bread line and it appears that a bakery in Beirut has been illegally hoarding subsidized wheat imports. He calls two inspectors to investigate the situation.

Younes insists his sporadic visits to the office, located just a few floors under the economy minister’s, do not signal an end to the strike. He said he still gets involved in some emergencies linked to food security, especially bread.

“Because we see how much people are suffering, and because we’re part of the people, we no doubt choose to remain available on this matter even at the bare minimum,” he said.

Younes then prepares for another call with some ministers who have been negotiating with the striking workers. He says their sympathy alone is no longer enough.

“Just like we’re committed to the public administration to continue its work, we hope the rulers do so too,” he said. “If there is no public sector, there is no state, no entity.”

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