Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre el servicio del empleo, 1948 (núm. 88) - Líbano (Ratificación : 1977)

Articles 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the Convention. Establishment of a functional free public employment service. The Government indicates that owing to the significant decrease in the value of the funds allocated to the National Employment Agency (NEA), the conditions of current employment offices in Beirut, Tripoli or Saida, have not improved, nor has there been any attempt to inaugurate additional employment offices in other areas. The Government, however, points to new measures aimed at improving job and employment opportunities via digital governance of services and at raising the quality of training approved by the Council of Ministers in Decision No. 23 of 12 May 2022 and included within the Ministry of Labour’s tripartite plan (2022–25). The Government also states that it seeks to cooperate with the relevant international organizations to support employment and training services and welcomes any project for cooperation with private employment agencies. While it takes into account the difficult situation prevailing in the country, the Committee wishes to recall in this respect that, by ratifying the Convention, countries commit to establishing a functional public employment service (PES), the essential duty of which is to ensure the best possible organization of the employment market in cooperation with other public and private bodies concerned. This responsibility includes formulating, implementing and duly financing an integrated employment policy of which an effective and free public employment service represents an essential part. In view of its long-standing comments regarding the implementation of the Convention in national law and practice, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures adopted or envisaged, particularly in the framework of the Ministry of Labour’s tripartite plan (2022–25) and through its employment policy, to contribute to and reinforce the public employment service as an essential part of the institutional architecture aimed at securing the broader policy objective of promoting full, productive and freely chosen employment. The Committee further requests the Government to carry out an in-depth assessment as to whether the PES comprises a sufficient number of regional and local offices, specialized by occupations and by industry, to serve each geographical area of the country, both rural and urban, and that they are duly financed, conveniently located, accessible for employers and workers and composed of qualified staff.

Articles 4 and 5. Cooperation with the social partners. For a significant number of years, the Committee has been pointing out the importance of the cooperation of the social partners in the organization, operation and development of the NEA, and in the development of an employment service policy. This participation was established by Legislative Decree No. 80 of 27 June 1977, which created the NEA. However, in 1994 the Government reported that the NEA had been repealed and that its responsibilities had been transferred to the Ministry of Labour. The Committee observes nonetheless that, in its subsequent reports, the Government has continued to refer to the need to amend Decree No. 80, including in its latest report, stating that it needs to amend this decree to reduce the number of members on the Executive Board of the NEA in order to increase its flexibility and effectiveness. In view of the foregoing, the Committee asks the Government to indicate: (i) the legal provisions guaranteeing the participation in equal numbers of employers’ and workers’ representatives in the management of the public employment service; (ii) the legal provisions guaranteeing consultation with these representatives in the development of the general employment service policy; and (iii) whether suitable arrangements have been made through advisory committees for the cooperation of these representatives in the organization and operation of the employment service and the development of the employment service policy, as required by Article 4 of the Convention. The Committee also asks the Government to provide a copy of the legal provisions in question.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.