The National Bloc: "Escape forward strategy will not solve public administration employees’ crisis

The public administration employees' open strike to fulfill their demands for wage correction, despite its illegality, reflects the depth of compounding crises that burden the Lebanese in the absence of any corrective measures for the third year in a row.

Employees have been on an open strike dating back to May due to the deteriorating economic situation that has rendered the local currency valueless. Civil servants have been calling on the state to implement measures to help them cope with the economic crisis, predominantly through an increase in salaries.

Rationalizing the public sector with a view to improving efficiency and reducing cost is one of the main demands reiterated by the "National Bloc". In a small country such as Lebanon, it is indisputable that having a huge number of the labor force in the public sector is a dangerous figure, especially that thousands of employees were hired randomly and under illegal classifications.

First of all, the government must immediately end all the illusory and random jobs already submitted to the Parliament, which constituted the greatest burden on the state and citizens and prevented competent employees from attaining positions in the sector.

At a later stage, it is necessary for the state to restructure the sector, correct wages, adopt the country’s Civil Service Board as the only recruitment means, implement e-government concept, enforce accountability and audit policies within departments, end the phenomenon of salaries and allowances accumulation, correct compensation system, and provide training with continuous employees’ performance evaluation.

Escaping forward will not solve the employees’ strike dilemma, which is exacerbated by the looming strike of Lebanon’s’ Central Bank employees, which will plunge state institutions into a vicious cycle of complete paralysis, in addition to the detrimental repercussions on the private sector.

History is not the only thing to repeat itself, so does the National Bloc. We said it 3 years ago, and we will repeat it today, as Lebanon enters the phase of government formation, the only political solution is to form an independent courageous government that has the “guts” to implement the necessary decisions and reforms. A sovereign government that operates its own independent nation without interference from foreign-domestic powers, and is able to stop the collapse and eventually work on economic recovery.