Azzi for the extension of social security to cover agricultural workers

The labor minister Sajaan Azzi called yesterday for setting an all inclusive insurance plan covering all workers in the agriculture industry regardless of gender or ethnicity. Azzi was speaking during his sponsorship of a pan Arab seminar on 'social insurance for workers in the informal agriculture and economic sector', planned by the Arab Labor Organization-Social  Protection Department, in collaboration with the Arab Association for Social Security. One of the main reasons for neglect of the agriculture sector by the Lebanese people, Azzi said, is the absence of social and health coverage. "We should be able to reach this point in order to give farmers the hope to remain  steadfast, reinstating the relation between man and his land and understanding the true notion of resistance and liberation to this effect.  For his part, the head of the Arab Labor Organization, Fayez Matiri emphasised the basic right of workers in the sector to social security in accordance with Recommendation No 9, issued by ALO in 2014, and concerning social protection. It is as well an essential economic and social tool to achieve social justice, he said, and to support transition from informal to more sustainable economies. (Al Mustaqbal and Al Diyar 5 October 2016)