Judicial Assistants Committees: “Protest Sit-In on Monday

The Judicial Assistants Committees escalated their stance over the salary file, announcing a move toward action on the ground after official positions diverged over the implementation of the Cabinet decision granting increases to public sector employees.

In a detailed statement, they said:

“After the Judicial Assistants Committees welcomed the Cabinet’s unanimously issued decision to grant six additional salaries to public sector employees, funded through a levy on gasoline canisters that has in fact been collected for more than two months, and after repeated official promises to gradually correct public sector salaries, as well as the clear statement by the Prime Minister affirming the preservation of public sector employees’ rights as of 1/3/2026 with regard to these increases, we were surprised by the statement issued by the Finance Minister, in which he considered the aforementioned Cabinet decision to be a mistake that cannot be repeated, which in practice indicates a refusal to implement it and its suspension indefinitely, in blatant disregard for the principle of continuity of public service, the legality of enforceable administrative decisions, and the funding mechanism whose burden the Lebanese people have borne for more than two months and which has now become a fixed source of revenue for the public treasury.”

They added: “This position constitutes a serious breach of the principle of legitimate expectation, and an unjustified retreat from official commitments. It keeps state employees and retirees below the poverty line amid the insane rise in fuel prices and its direct repercussions on various essential goods, including the basic necessities of daily life. Accordingly, the Judicial Assistants Committees consider this statement to be an outright deception affecting acquired rights, at a time when the employee has become unable even to secure the cost of transportation to his workplace.”

The committees announced a series of escalatory steps, most notably:

1- “A protest sit-in on Monday, 27/4/2026, and a gathering of judicial assistants inside courthouses from 10:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m., to express their categorical rejection of this approach and in solidarity with the Public Sector Employees Association and the coalition of public sector associations (military and civilian).

2- An appeal to the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Prime Minister to intervene immediately to halt the effects of this statement, and to affirm the implementation of the Cabinet decision and the disbursement of the six salaries without any delay.

3- A demand to the Minister of Justice, in his capacity as the authority overseeing judicial assistants’ affairs, to take the necessary and urgent measures to find the legal and administrative mechanism capable of disbursing these entitlements, and to work on improving transportation allowances in line with living conditions, especially in light of the exceptional circumstances many colleagues are facing as a result of displacement and their distance from their workplaces.”

They concluded by stressing that: “The continuation of this approach will inevitably lead to the complete collapse of judicial assistants, which will compel us to resort to all legitimate means in defense of rights and in protection of the dignity of the public employee.”