p
g
p
But rather than use the parallel market exchange rate – which currently values the
Lebanese pound at 4,000 to $1 – RAMCO is pegging the conversion to the 23-year-old
but now wildly unrealistic official exchange rate of 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the
dollar.
“Pay us in dollars, or pay us in Lebanese pounds at the market rate,” said Rafi. “I want
a solution. No solution? No work.”
Walid Bou Saad, director of RAMCO, told Al Jazeera that while it is clear that the
company is “violating” its contracts with its workers, it cannot pay them in dollars or
at the prevailing market rate because the Lebanese state – its biggest customer –
started paying for the company’s services in Lebanese pounds at the official exchange
rate.
“The workers have the right to ask for their rights, but how can I give them their rights
if I can’t get mine?” he asked.
He also said the Lebanese government owes RAMCO $8.7m for work done over the
past nine months.
The worst-hit rise up
There is plenty of financial misery to go around in Lebanon. Last summer, the
economy started to buckle under the weight of decades of unfettered corruption,
unsustainable fiscal policies, the war next door in Syria and a slump in vital
remittances from abroad.
Tens of thousands of Lebanese have since lost their jobs while hundreds of businesses
have closed – and that was before a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown delivered yet
another crippling blow to an economy already on life support.
Nearly everyone in Lebanon has been hit with a de facto wage cut as the currency has
depreciated, but few have been worse affected by the currency crunch than migrants,
most of whom labour abroad to send money home to their relatives.
Migrant workers are employed under the notorious kafala system that ties their
residency status directly to their employer, limiting their ability to amend or end