2023-04-26 17:45:32
Under the title: “On call employees…”a new innovation” in Lebanese banks,” it came on the “Al-Hurra” website:
On the 30th of last March, Lina was surprised by an e-mail from the Recruitment Manager, during which he informed her of the new procedure, which affected, as she says, “65 employees,” stressing in an interview with “Al-Hurra” that “the period during which our fate will remain pending between returning to the office and final dismissal has not been determined.” About our services, we are now in the Employees on Call stage, during which we will receive the basis of our salary only, meaning that the transportation allowance and fresh dollars have been deducted from it.
The psychological pain that Lina suffers is greater than the physical. The flowery words that were used in the e-mail that she received did not, according to her, reduce the weight of each written letter. It goes.
The Executive Council of the Syndicate of Banks Employees in Lebanon confirmed that it had received information “from several references about the adoption by some banks of a new heresy in dealing surprisingly with a significant number of their employees, by asking them not to come to work and their commitment to homes in return for paying the basis of the pension without the transportation allowance.” And without equating it with the collapse of the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound (which is currently being paid in various forms as financial support in Al-Fresh or in other ways in banks).
In a statement, the General Workers’ Federation announced its solidarity with the unions and the Union of Bank Employees, and its “categorical rejection of any type of exchange, whether it is overt or concealed, which some banks deliberately do.”
Bid’ah is rejected
And the article continued: “The Executive Council of the Syndicate of Banks Employees in Lebanon stressed in a statement that” the heresy of innovative banks is not accepted by us by all standards, so the employee of the banking sector is satisfied with what he suffered and is suffering today, and since the beginning of the crisis, and receiving blows from customers and departments alike to reach his situation. Facing an unknown fate, and with a pension unworthy of any employee in these exceptional and pressing circumstances.
He added, “The dignity of the banking sector employee categorically refuses to accept sums of money for free. We are not asking for a good deed. But if what is required is to pass the time to reach a collective disbursement with unclear features, then we immediately go to the concerned departments to reach an understanding with us and their employees on what will happen to him.” This measure, stressing that we will not stand idly by in front of the simulated engineering and fabrications.
The Council called on the departments that will adopt this procedure to make clear to the employees, the union and the federation what they intend to do after the deposit period, either by committing to returning fellow employees to work, or to develop an acceptable protocol to be agreed upon, in the interest of all parties.
“gray” fate
And the article continued: “A group of employees who were affected by the new decision resorted to the head of the Federation of Banks Employees Syndicates, George Al-Hajj, to inquire from him about what is happening, and to see the steps that the union will take, but they only heard from him, as Lina says, one response, which is “inability.” I have to do something until the bank decides to dismiss us, because we are still considered employees.”
In an interview with “Al-Hurra” website, Al-Hajj confirmed that the Lebanese Commercial Bank is the only bank so far that has informed its employees of this procedure, without eliminating the possibility that other banks will take the same step within the restructuring policy, and as a union we demand to know whether this means Dispensing with employee services, as in this case a protocol must be drawn up immediately, as the employee has the right to obtain acceptable compensation commensurate with the circumstances the country is going through.
And he adds, “The bank’s procedure is uncomfortable, so we are working to put matters within their framework, and reveal any path that is drawn for the employees, and we have taken the position that we expressed in the statement,” stressing that “the basic salary of an employee is barely equivalent to 40 dollars, which means that it has no value.” without additions.
Before the economic crisis in the country, the number of banks in the Lebanese governorates and districts exceeded 60, and the number of their branches touched a thousand, then their number decreased in March 2022 to about 900 branches. As for the number of employees in the banking sector, it reached 25,000, before it decreased by the end of the year 2022 to below 19,000, after the closure of about 65 branches, and the dismissal of about 7,000 employees in various forms, according to what was stated in the statement of the General Labor Union.
And the Labor Union considered in its statement that, “With the rolling ball of the financial and monetary collapse, and the banks evading their duties towards the contracts concluded with them by depositors, and limiting responsibility for them to the Central Bank and the Lebanese state, after making profits in the hundreds of billions of dollars that they smuggled with their partners abroad for a described crime, they are trying These banks today, in order to preserve their profit margins, and not because of their losses, blame the existing downturn as a result of the lack of confidence in their performance for their employees.
He also announced his rejection of any traditional settlement in light of this grinding crisis due to his lack of confidence in the performance of some banks, “because they breached their contract with the depositor and because they worked to empty the collective contract with employees of its content, and because major banks prevented their employees from joining our union,” calling on unions and the Federation of Banks to Not relying on any protocol, and relying on real, tangible guarantees in the Ministry of Labor, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, which protect employees from the brutality of the banking ogre.
Actual protection, according to the labor union, “comes from solidarity among employees and with the General Labor Union, and the willingness to take to the streets and move and escalate in any way to protect the rights that are subject to rape.”
Once options
The economic crisis prompted the banking sector to “take the step of self-restructuring, each bank according to its ability and needs, with the aim of reducing operating expenses,” according to what banking risk expert Dr. Muhammad Fahili says, noting that this requires “closing branches and dismissing employees from service.” And asking some of them to stop attending while continuing to receive a basis or part of their salaries while ensuring health coverage, in the event that their final disbursement will cost the bank large sums of money.
Fahili explains in an interview with Al-Hurra that “in economic logic, the movement in the banking sector reflects the movement of the economy, and after the recession of the latter, as the national product declined from 55 billion dollars in 2018 to less than 20 billion today, it is natural that The movement in the banking sector is shrinking.”
The loss of confidence in banks operating in Lebanon also contributed, as Fahili says, “to paralyzing their movement, and after they previously provided hundreds of services, they froze about 90% of them due to their inability to provide them or the bank’s customers stopped requesting them, as the matter became limited to withdrawals and deposits, In accordance with the provisions of the basic circulars of the Banque du Liban (which bear numbers 150, 151, and 158) in addition to the service of the exchange platform, “according to the provisions of Basic Circular No. 161, pointing out that” what the Lebanese Trade Bank took is a bold and essential step if the direction of the board of directors is Merger of this bank with Fransabank, as they belong to the same owners. (free)
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