Lebanon’s Bank Employees Request Compliance With Contracts
Lebanon’s Bank Employees Association warned Friday that the failure to renew a collective contract which has governed relations between Lebanese banks and their employees since the 1970s could destabilize the sector.
“Not reaching a settlement over the collective contract would no doubt undermine the sector’s stability,” said head of the association Assad Khoury, warning employees would take action if an agreement is not reached soon.
The group slammed the Lebanese Banks Association for insisting on their demand to increase working hours and failing to offer employees suitable compensation.
According to the employees association, the banks are also insisting on cutting the number of salary packages to employees from 16 to 12 per annum.
The last collective contract, which expired in 2010, grants bank employees 16 monthly salaries per year instead of 12.
Banks argue employees should instead receive the additional four-month payments divided over 12 months. Employees reject such a step because it would decrease wage levels in the sector in the long run.
“We are astonished and fully reject the proposals and suggestions outlined in [a letter sent to us] by the Lebanese Banks Association,” said Khoury, in a post-meeting statement.
He said months of negotiations with the banks association had failed to reach a consensus as banks insisted on both demands and rejected various demands by the employees.
Negotiations over renewal of the contract resumed in March after the Labor Ministry intervened allowing the resumption of talks between the two sides.
In addition to disagreements over the banks’ demands as well as increasing education and health benefits to employees, the negotiations have also been complicated by a wage increase given to employees last January.
The collective contract stipulates that bank employees should get a 25 percent increase on the third salary bracket, in addition to wage increases granted on the first and second brackets.
Last January, the Cabinet issued a decision offering a wage increase for private sector employees. The wage increase ranged from LL175,000 for those earning the minimum wage to LL299,000 for those earning more than LL1.5 million. The decision didn’t stipulate any raise for the third salary bracket above LL1.5 million.
Banks refuse to implement the raise on the third bracket and argue that the wage increase preceded the expiry of the collective contract.
The Bank Employees Association has more than 10,000 members, or 50 percent of the actual number of bank employees, and observers said that if the staff decided to hold a strike then this would deal a serious blow to the banking sector.
But it is highly unlikely the bank staff will call for a strike anytime soon as past experience shows that last-minute mediations usually prevent any imminent showdown between the employees and their employers.
Some of the leading banks in Lebanon do not allow their staff to join the association or any other union, and this is clearly mentioned in their contracts, the Daily Star reported.
