Yet another futile MOL attempt to regulate the employment of foreigners in Lebanon

The Ministry of Labor issued a statement yesterday calling on all production sectors to respect the Labor Law and its implementation mechanisms which regulate the work of foreigners in Lebanon, while blaming as expected the Syrian displaced persons for the unemployment problem which in fact is endemic. The statement which referred to statistics of unknown sources which estimated the current unemployment rate at 25%, noted that the Ministry has given institutions a waiver of several months to legalize the situation of their foreign employees based on a request by Minister Sejaa Azzi. Azzi has held for this purpose a number of meetings with representatives of several production sectors with the presence of experts to facilitate the issuance of work permits for foreigners and schedule their due payments. Now that this grace period has elapsed, and several institutions have failed to legalize the situation of their foreign employees, the Ministry is thus inviting these parties once more to give priority to Lebanese for employment and limit the employment of foreigners to sectors that require foreign expertise and especially when no Lebanese are found for the job.  The statement of the Minister also gave a special regards to Arab “brotherhood” and is asking employers to give special attention to Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Iraqi and ensure that they are employed according to the law as well as refrain from sacking Lebanese employees for the purpose of replacing them with foreigners. The memo calls on employers to settle the situation of their foreign employees in a period not exceeding two weeks and to give due consideration to the rights and entitlements of these workers notably working hours, social and health security as well as annual leaves. Employers should apply directly for work permits and not go through mediators except ones that are endorsed by the employer in order for the process to be transparent and to prevent problems arising because of mediators. The statement warned that any failure in following these instructions will make the employer liable to investigation and penalty; it also disclosed that it has also set up an emergency unit to oversee the proper and swift implementation of these guidelines and to speed up the necessary investigation process. (Al Akhbar, Al Mustaqbal, 19 May 2015)