The Mobile Operators Syndicate called the employees of the Lebanese cellular sector to go on strike starting Wednesday morning, June 17th.
In a statement released late on Tuesday, the Syndicate said:
“After the deadline that the Syndicate gave to those concerned to address the issue of salary payment, and despite the emergence of some positive indicators during the past few hours, and pending the translation of these indicators into facts, the Syndicate asks all employees to halt work starting from tomorrow morning, Wednesday, 17/06/2020.”
The head of the Mobile Operators Syndicate, Charbel El-Nawwar, told LBCI that the strike “is cautionary until anything positive is felt and translated on the ground by paying the salaries, but things are going towards the positive and we will try not to affect the citizen.”
This strike comes following the conclusion of the 48-hour grace period recently given by the cellular sector’s employees to their companies for paying their overdue salaries.
2,000 employees of both of Lebanon’s cellular operators, Alfa and Touch, are participating in the strike, which, if lasts long enough, can lead to the complete suspension of Lebanon’s cellular services.
In the wake of the recent developments, Minister of Telecommunications Talal Hawat has been striving to secure the employees their salaries in the coming few days, LBCI reported.
Hawat recently held a meeting with Zain and Orascom, the two companies that manage Touch and Alfa, which involved a discussion to have the salaries paid soon, possibly this Friday, June 19th.
Notably, Al-Akhbar reported that Alfa employees were invited on Tuesday to resume working from their offices starting this Thursday with regular working hours, while taking the necessary COVID-19 precautionary measures, without receiving customers.
