Lebanon

In Lebanon, trade unions recorded several instances of beatings, intimidation, and harassment of trade union members to force them to withdraw from their representative organisations or to drop complaints. In other cases, employers resorted to docking pay and arbitrary dismissals.

In Lebanon, workers’ protests were often suppressed by police forces using disproportionate violence and arbitrary arrests.

In Lebanon, the authorities severely impeded the registration of trade unions. A number of applications for registration have yet to be granted by the Ministry of Labour, including the Agricultural Workers Union, the Port Drivers Union, the Mechanical Inspection Workers Union, the Domestic Service Workers Union, and the Public Sector Workers Union.

In Lebanon, it was very common for employers to interfere in social elections, including by deleting names from the lists of candidates.

In Lebanon, independent trade unions regularly faced a refusal to negotiate from employers. Employers used various anti-union tactics including questioning a trade union’s representativity, creating a negotiating committee with no genuine workers’ representation, or referring a dispute to the courts to delay the negotiation process.

Several strike actions in Lebanon were suppressed by the police who arbitrarily detained workers, especially those from overseas.