After setting a 48-hour grace period for their unpaid salaries to be paid, the employees of the Lebanese cellular sector said they will resort to suspending their work as a last resort.
The Mobile Operators Syndicate released a statement on Tuesday morning, drawing the public’s attention to “the negative results that will be reflected on the cellular service that benefits more than 4 million subscribers.”
According to the statement, this is how the Lebanese cellular sector will be affected:
- The supply of recharge vouchers for prepaid lines to the market will stop.
- Post-paid lines will remain active but “this will increase the value of unpaid bills as the stores of the two companies (Alfa and Touch) will continue to be closed to subscribers.”
- Cellular networks will be affected due to the technical teams suspending all maintenance work. This will cause voice calls and internet services to stop.
- Customer service through both companies’ call centers (111) will stop completely, and the same goes for social media and Live Chat services. This will, in turn, prevent subscribers from being able to activate/deactivate/modify their services and/or lines.
With that said, the Mobile Operators Syndicate asserts that the decision to stop work will be a serious one and is not intended for “media consumption.”
It also insists that the negative effects that the citizens will experience in the aftermath of that decision are not the employees’ responsibility.
Rather, the entirety of the responsibility “rests with those responsible for procrastinating in paying the salaries and rights of the employees,” the statement indicated.
On that note, the Syndicate expressed its apology in advance “to all the Lebanese for any difficulties or harm that may be caused to their businesses or interests, or anything that results from the suspension of cellular services.”
Finally, it urged the concerned parties to bear their responsibility towards the Lebanese people by paying the employees of the cellular sector what they’re owed, and “not to do more harm to the national economy.”
The Head of the Mobile Operators Syndicate, Charbel El Nawar, told Annahar that both Touch and Alfa owe their employees several months’ worth of salaries now, despite the cellular sector being “a productive sector and provides funds for the state treasury.”
