Khalil Says No Politics in Electricity Crisis as Agreement Reached with EDL Workers

W300

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil on Monday stressed that there are no “political motives” behind the crisis that has been gripping the electricity sector for several days now, as he announced that an agreement has been reached with the syndicate of Electricité du Liban workers.

“A positive result has been reached in the issue of the new wage scale of EDL workers,” said Khalil after a meeting with Energy Minister Cesar Abi Khalil and a workers delegation.

“All talk of political motives behind what happened is baseless and the discussion was purely administrative and financial,” Khalil added.

The minister also clarified that there are two crises in the sector – one related to a strike by EDL workers and another related to third-party service providers.

“This agreement puts things on the right track and we have reconciled between the law stipulations and the demands of the syndicate and the employees, and what we have reached reflects a common interest for everyone,” Khalil added.

Energy Minister Abi Khalil for his part said EDL workers are expected to resume their administrative and maintenance works to “restore the service to citizens, who have suffered enough” over the past days.

“As for service providers, we are working on new ideas and tomorrow we will resolve this issue,” he added.

General Confederation of Lebanese Workers chief Beshara al-Asmar, who took part in the meeting, meanwhile described the reached agreement as “honorable.”

“It returns power supply to normalcy and things have been put on the right track,” he said, hoping the deal will also lead to “a solution to the issue of EDL contract workers.”

According to Asmar, the contract workers have not been paid their salaries for three months.

Several Lebanese regions have witnessed lengthy power cuts or total outages in recent days due to the strikes.

On Monday, angry residents blocked the vital Ring highway in Beirut with burning tires and trash bins to protest a several-day power outage resulting from the absence of necessary maintenance for their area's electricity substation.

SourceNaharnet