The Committee of Employers, Contractors, and Employers of the Martyr Rafic Hariri Governmental University Hospital issued a statement about their situation and the administration’s ignoring of some demands, stating:
“About a week after the start of our sit-in inside the hospital, during which we did not leave an opportunity to communicate with the “supposed management” of the hospital and the “board of directors” that expired several years ago, but we tried to exploit it to ensure the proper functioning of the work and some of the workers’ rights so that they could come to their work stations And to provide the health care that our citizens deserve, but unfortunately we did not feel the minimum required of positivity from the administration, or even just responding with our latest attempts as a committee, which was to send an official letter requesting an immediate meeting between the representatives of the staff and those responsible for the administration in the hospital to present proposals And solutions and discussing them with them, but we received the unfortunate answer with a media statement issued by a room whose doors were blocked in our face, and it does not work and does not benefit in our open living crisis.
As a result, we clarify some of the inaccuracies made by the administration in its statement:
1) Since the beginning of the living crisis, we have been suffering from both issues, and we have continued to search for solutions and to engage in dialogue with the “management”, which has repeatedly confirmed that the continuity of our daily attendance of normal work hours in the hospital justifies our demands for assistance different from that given to the public administration, and despite that they did not approve it.
2) The Administration has repeatedly confirmed that there are sufficient funds in the hospital’s accounts to be able to support the human cadre.
3) We, as representatives of the employees, put forward a set of ideas that constitute solutions to get out of the crisis, and we did not intransigence at one request, and despite that, the administration was working to waste time.
4) The most striking thing in the statement is that the administration adheres to the method of public spending followed in the departments. If what is meant by that is the impossibility of paying in US dollars, then we as employees have confirmed our lack of adherence to that, but here we ask, does the administration have the right to pay some doctors and suppliers in US dollars?! And do the applicable laws allow payment in dollars to the accounts of suppliers outside Lebanon?! Where are the regulators on that?!
Despite all this, as employees, we affirm our request to hold an open and immediate meeting with those responsible for managing this edifice to secure support for its continuity of work in a manner that suits the workers and the hospital alike. Expired, and seeking to appoint a genuine director and a new board of directors in a manner that can respond to the aspirations of the hospital staff.”