Labor ministry super active in monitoring lay-offs and in combating Syrian labor

The labor ministry announced this week that it had received a letter from a leading local textile company notifying it of the decision to foreclose after 40 years in business and to subsequently lay off 42 of its Lebanese employees, and asked to consult with the ministry in this regard. The reasons for the forced closure, according to company owner, Mohamad Sinno, are purely economic, and it started with the outbreak of conflicts in the Arab region and the resulting flooding of the domestic markets with Turkish and Chinese goods. The ministry  mentioned another local company, 106-year old printing press which also asked to consult with it for the dismissal of 13 of its staff for the same reasons. The labor ministry also pointed out to many grievances it received from employees and workers who were arbitrarily laid off from their jobs. For the complete list of companies, kindly visit the following link: http://bit.ly/2g0DHL4. ;

On foreign workers, the ministry disclosed that it is tracking enterprises that recruit foreign laborers, namely Syrians. In this respect, it cited a number of complaints from medical doctors and patients at Bhanis Hospital claiming that the Lebanese dialect is barely being heard on the site as most nursing staff are now Syrians. Moreover, the ministry pointed out that its inspection team has recently seized 33 Syrian nationals working as nurse aides and in other occupations and has taken the appropriate penalties against the violating institutions. The ministry has also suspended the licenses of some 29 agencies recruiting domestic workers for violating rules. (Al Diyar, Al Akhbar, November 5 and 9, 2016)