Legal amendments benefiting Palestinian workforce in Lebanon remain on paper

The Center for Employment Promotion and Social Protection for Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon organized last November 26 a seminar entitled “Five Years after the Amendment of the Labor and Social Security Law in 2010: Text and Reality’ which criticized the non-implementation of the new law amendments that also contained a number of contradictory clauses. Former Ambassador Samir Khury, chair of the center, pointed out that modifications introduced by the Parliamentary Administration and Justice Committee back in 2010 on the social security and labor laws in terms of the treatment of Palestinian refugees legally residing in the country on par with the Lebanese citizen as per the emergency of work and end of service compensation were inconsistent and not up to expectations. He added that the necessary implementation decrees were never passed by the cabinet. Furthermore, he noted that Palestinians are still the subject of discrimination by laws regulating the self-employed professions where some sectors still ban non-Lebanese residents from practicing such professions. He also criticized the discriminatory nature of social security law by virtue of which Palestinians are required to pay the equivalent of 23% of their salaries, yet they are only eligible to benefit from the end of service indemnity. At the end of the seminar, participants reiterated the demands for the full recognition of rights guaranteed to Palestinians under international laws and those conventions signed by Lebanon. (Daily Star, November 27, 2015)