Banks sign new labor contract

Higher schooling allowances and annual raises

The Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) and the Union of Bank Employees signed the new version of the Collective Labor Contract on Wednesday July 31, 2013. After its ratification by the Ministry of Labor, the agreement will be enforced for two years starting January 1, 2013.

The agreement excludes all the employees who signed special contracts with specific employment conditions. Asad Khoury, President of the Bank Employees Syndicate, said: “The contract excludes only employees who sign contracts for a limited time, or those recruited to perform a special mission, such as IT technicians, or advisors on restructuring projects.”

The new agreement will grant all fixed employees a three percent annual raise on a 16-month annual basis.

Working hours will be limited to 35 hours per week. In exceptional cases only, banks may impose a maximum of seven hours of overtime per week.

Most employees hired during the last three years are working about nine hours daily. Khoury said: “If these employees signed contracts with their banks for nine working hours per day, banks will have to start paying them a compensation of about 27 percent of their current salary.”

Allowances for school tuition fees of employees’ children were increased from $1,800 to $2,300, and from $2,500 to $3,600 for universities. Coverage of public school tuitions increased to $1,000 and coverage of Lebanese University tuition reached $2,000.

The agreement also includes employees’ compensations. Married bank employees are granted family allocations as settled by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) plus 75 percent for unsubscribed spouses, and 50 percent for children (valid for up to five children, both male and female, until the age of 25).