Mid-day Tuesday saw the EDL's Board of Directors press conference held in hopes of clarifying the ongoing issue.
Kamal Hayek, the company's Director General urged security forces to preserve
assets within the EDL, adding that they are not
intending on cutting off power to citizens but are facing a real threat.
Hayek added that the payment of
wages is no longer possible since contracts with contract workers have expired. "When the
contract workers’ sit-in exceeded its peaceful limits, the situation changed
completely," he added. "A solution must be reached at Parliament, not
inside the EDL buildings," he stressed. Hayek went on to call for steering politics away from the issue of the EDL, adding that the company remains occupied; "We cannot go back to work before the situation goes back to normal," he said.
Hayek noted that was had
happened Monday on the company’s premises can be classified as both dangerous and
unprecedented in the company’s history, adding that mounting pressures exerted
only damages the interest of the people and not the politicians.
"The issuance of bills was
done in accordance with a request from the ISF as per a request made by the audit
bureau, all bills have subsequently been delivered to contracting companies,"he
added.
Hayek apologized for
the company’s inability to tend to its routine maintenance duties in several areas
due to protestors banning company vehicles from leaving the buildings premises.
Responding to Hayek’s statement, the EDL contract
workers’ committee confirmed adherence to its “peaceful and civilized” protest
until its “legitimate” demands are met.
During a press conference, the committee urged the citizens, syndicates
and committees to endorse its cause.
The committee also called on the EDL employees to
have patience until the crisis is over.
“We are the weaker party in this [game], so how can
we cut off electricity?” it added.
Prior to Tuesday's
cabinet session held at the Baabda
Palace, convened to address the EDL contract workers crisis, Health Minister
Ali Hassan Khalil said that there has been a significant improvement in the
contract workers issue, stressing that a "solution is near".
At a time when the EDL’s gates are still closed with metal
chains, the company’s administration called on all employees and other workers
to continue their tasks at various EDL branches closest to Beirut.
In this regard, the head of the General Labor Confederation
Ghassan Ghosn told LBCI that the goal behind the negotiations led by the
Confederation is granting the contract workers tenure based on the results of
the skills test and the public sector system, as well as guaranteeing workers’
rights. Ghosn stressed that the GLC stands by the contract workers and supports
their demands.
Asked on the unpaid electricity bills pertaining to his late father's company that resurged recently
causing a stir, Ghosn said he knows nothing about them, adding that if their
existence were to be proven, they would date back to 1993, “thus would be
included in the overall invoice amnesty of the same year".
Ghosn said that the timing of this "campaign" is due to the support
of the contract workers’ demands.
The media envoy of the
Progressive Socialist Party
Rami Rayes earlier commented on the situation through Nharkon Said on LBCI, saying the company is "under occupation",stressing that closing an institution such as the EDL deals a blow to the state's prestige.