In light of the very severe financial and economic crisis that the country is going through, the Minister of Labor in the caretaker government, Kamil Abu Suleiman, decided to take some serious measures in this regard to deal with requests for arbitrary dismissal in the workforce.
Accordingly, the minister formed an emergency committee in the ministry to deal with requests for arbitrary dismissal, calling on Lebanese employees who were expelled from their work in violation of the law and without obtaining their compensation to file a complaint with the Ministry to follow up their files.
He pointed out during a televised interview on LBCI that more than 60 companies applied within a week to the Ministry of Labor to dismiss all their employees, stressing that he does not accept any random or proactive layoff.
Abu Sulaiman also stated that companies that want to perform a group layoff process must submit an application to the ministry 30 days before taking this step, and they must show their financial statements and confirm that they were affected by the difficult economic situation.
He added: “They must demonstrate to the Ministry of Labor the impact of the crisis on them and their institutions. We have taken a decision that if a group dismissal process takes place on terms that we did not agree to, the company has no right to recruit foreign workers at least for a year.”
The Lebanese economy has been in a sharp downturn and the eruption of the 17 October protests increased the crisis, causing many companies and businesses to fire their employees, dismiss them in an illegal way, or cut down their salary to the half or less.
Due to the current situation, thousands of companies are threatened with closure, and tens of thousands of employees and workers are at risk of losing their jobs.
In the last two months, more than 265 restaurants, cafes and other food-and-beverage establishments have closed up shop, the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Nightclubs, and Patisseries said in a statement last month.
