President Michel Aoun continued Tuesday his meetings at Baabda palace to deal with the developments that arose during the cabinet’s discussion of the 2019 budget draft law.
In this context, he received the head of the General Labor Confederation Beshara al-Asmar, accompanied by a delegation including heads of independent trade unions and public administration unions in Lebanon, where he listened to their remarks concerning a number of items included in the budget draft law, mainly the ones related to the workers’ salaries. The meeting also tackled the work conditions and reasons leading some of the unions to stage a strike.
For his part, Aoun explained the current situation in the country, especially the economic situation, pointing out the damages affecting the national economy as a result of the strike held by some of the vital sectors in the country. He also urged the unions to evaluate the situation and work on preventing the country from sustaining any more risks and harms.
The president stressed that he will review the disputed items and the demands they deem as rights and benefits, emphasizing that he will not allow any measure that affects the income of the poor and middle classes.
In turn, al-Asmar said after the meeting that Aoun promised them that he will seek to amend some of the items in the draft law and that the budget will not harm the low and middle-income employees.