ILO aims to boost job opportunities in northern Lebanon through labour law training
An ILO training workshop in Tripoli aims to increase knowledge of Lebanese labour laws amongst employment service providers catering to locals and foreigners, as part of an initiative to tackle the effect of the Syrian refugee crisis on employment and livelihoods in rural northern Lebanon.
Aiming to boost employment opportunities in North Lebanon’s rural areas most affected by the Syrian refugee crisis, the International Labour Organization (ILO) held a training workshop on labour laws for local and national employment service providers in northern Lebanon in collaboration with the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center.
The training workshop was part of the ILO’s efforts to alleviate the effects of the crisis, which has seen more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees, including more than 60,000 Palestinians from Syria, seek refuge in Lebanon alone, according to UNHCR data from August 2014. The crisis in Lebanon and neighbouring countries is increasingly leading to stalled economic activity, loss of income and shrinking access to quality public services.
The workshop took place on September 24 and 25 in Tripoli, and gathered around 20 employment officers. The training was delivered by specialists in Lebanese labour and social security laws from Caritas. It informed participants about international and local laws governing the right to work, and focused on decent work conditions, residency and work permits, work contracts, jobs and businesses opened for non-nationals, social security and health, rights and obligations of job seekers and employers, and other related issues.
Participants and trainers discussed the legal problems and obstacles facing job seekers at work and how to handle them. They exchanged knowledge and experience, and shed light on successful practices in ensuring job opportunities and decent work condition for all categories of job seekers in Lebanon including Lebanese, women, minors, refugees and migrants.
The workshop was the initiative of the ILO project ‘Enabling Job Resilience and Protecting Decent Work Conditions in Rural Communities Affected by the Syrian Refugee Crisis in Northern Lebanon’.
“In a contracting economy coupled with an increase of labour supply between 30 and 50% due to the influx of refugees, the effective provision of employment services is critical. This training on the Lebanese labour laws is the first in a series of workshops designed to support the employment service providers in improving their service provision and establish a network for cooperation. Employment service providers are a crucial link between the job seekers and job opportunities and play an important role in ensuring that the jobs referred to are decent work opportunities, safeguarding working conditions and decent pay in accordance to the law. A concise understanding of the regulations helps to ensure job seekers are referred to sectors open to their recruitment. The workshop enjoyed the active and enthusiastic participation of trainees underlining the importance of the training,” said Annabella Skof, the project’s Chief Technical Advisor.
The project forms part of the ILO’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis and focuses on employment and livelihoods issues. Its goal is to enhance resilience of both producers and workers affected by the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon’s rural areas through improving the employability of vulnerable job seekers, increasing income generation and employment creation in the agricultural sector, and enhancing capacities of service providers to boost local economic development.
It contributes to a strategy by the Regional United Nations Development Group for Arab States to address the impact of the refugee crisis on countries neighbouring Syria.
For media queries, contact: Salwa Kanaana, Regional Communication and Public Information Officer, ILO Regional Office for Arab States, Tel: +961 1 752 400 (Ext 117), email: [email protected]
