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Informal work flourishing amidst weakening law enforcement
8-5-2017
In a special feature on Saturday, Al Akhbar newspaper highlighted the informal work sector in Lebanon which has flourished significantly since the 1990s. Following the government’s decision to suspend recruitment in state jobs, leaders and influential people were inclined to manipulate the laws to their advantage through so-termed ‘contracting’, as a relaxed way to buy political allegiances, Al Akhbar wrote. Such practices, the newspaper said, has sustained the phenomenon of contractors and daily workers in the public sector who presently constitute a wide spectrum of self-employed persons, mostly not covered by health insurance or deprived of social protection. To recall, informal workers are not subject to the provisions of the labor law or income tax legislation, and as such, are not entitled to minimum wage nor to the rights of employment subsidies. In this respect, Al Akhbar mentioned a World Bank report in 2010 estimating the number of informal workers at 56% of the total workforce, noting (the newspaper) that such figures preceded the influx of Syrian refugees into the country. Al Akhbar cited findings of another study on informal work rates by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2009, as follows: agriculture (92.5%), construction (72%), transportation (58%), trade (39%) and services sector (15%), but said that such figures have undoubtedly doubled after the elapse of 8 years. The newspaper concluded by pointing to the exaggerated count of Syrian workers in the country in the wake of the refugee crisis, and raised the issue of exploitation by Lebanese employers of the rights of Syrian workers, especially in terms of wages. Business owners, Al Akbar wrote, should be forced to respect the rights of workers of any nationality. It called for changing the racist rhetoric against Syrian labor and adopting a mandate that enforces laws in observance of workers’ rights without discrimination. (Al Akhbar, May 8, 2017)
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- العربية
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