Political and social dialogue on the extension of social insurance to workers in agriculture

1. Overview

In Lebanon, 92.6 per cent of agricultural workers are not covered by social insurance schemes. The exclusion of workers in agriculture from social insurance is coupled with the limited coverage of social assistance in general.

According to the Lebanese Labour Code of 1946 and its successive amendments, agricultural workers in Lebanon are implicitly deprived of their rights in both its second and seventh article.  The Labour Code excludes agriculture workers working in agriculture institutions, not involved in commercial or industrial activities, as per clause 2 of Article 7. Article 7 also excludes institutions that only employ family members, under the management of the father, mother or guardian. Therefore, to date, the status of farmers and agricultural workers has not been legalized and agricultural workers do not fall under the labour law.

An agricultural worker is subject to labour law only if he/she works in an agricultural enterprise. Article 2 of the same law excludes from its coverage farmers and farm workers, since it defines the worker as “any man, woman or adolescent who works for consideration of a wage or salary in an employer’s premises within the terms of reference indicated in the preceding article, in accordance with an individual or group contract, written or oral”.  Moreover, Article 31 that caps working hours at 48 hour per week explicitly excludes agriculture workers. In other words, agriculture workers are denied guarantees provided by the Labour Code including, social security, minimum wage, set working hours, annual and sick leave.

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is the main institution providing social security to workers in Lebanon. Agricultural workers were excluded from the first phase of implementation of the NSSF as per article 10 of the Social Security Law of 1963, which indicates in its first paragraph that “the provisions of this law in the second phase are applicable to all Lebanese workers, labourers and employees, trainees, and interns, who work on Lebanese lands in an agricultural enterprise, for the account of one or more Lebanese or foreign employers”. Article 12 of the same law stipulates that “In the third stage, a special law specifies the conditions for the application of the social security system or some of its branches in a mandatory manner for people who have not yet been subject to its provisions in the first and second stages (unpaid workers, independent workers, employers, etc. ...)”.

Nonetheless, the legislator has skipped the implementation of the third phase.  The Social Security Law has not yet included all sectors, except through the issuance of one implementation decree No. 7757 dated 07/05/1974 titled “Applying and determining the date of implementation of all branches of insurance on the permanent agricultural procedure”. The first article of this text stipulates that “all branches mentioned in Article 7 of the Social Security Law are applied to permanent Lebanese employees who work in an agricultural enterprise within the territories of the Lebanese Republic”. This special text issued in 1974 allows the inclusion of Lebanese permanent agricultural workers in the NSSF, guaranteeing them family and end-of-service-indemnities in addition to health and maternity benefits.

Many agricultural workers may be willing to contribute to social insurance schemes but are excluded because of financial, administrative, legal and informational barriers.  In fact, research shows that around 70 per cent of informal workers are willing to pay for social insurance schemes, and point out that they could contribute, on average, 5.8 per cent of their salary.

2. Scope of Work

The ILO is looking for an implementing partner to undertake the following tasks:

• The engagement of stakeholders - through working groups and roundtables - in a dialogue and a political process to explore the most relevant solutions to the following: Stream 1: The extension of social insurance to workers in agriculture.; Stream 2: The enhanced compliance of registration of the workers in agri-food enterprises (existing SMEs and new business start-ups) that are already covered by the NSSF;  and Stream 3: The provisional coverage of workers though alternative schemes during the transition towards the inclusion of this group in social insurance.
• In light of the working groups and roundtables, reporting on the best solutions across the three streams
• Designing the workplan for the implementation of identified solutions and identifying the needed technical assistance to the implementation and designing the relevant terms of reference.

3. Eligibility

This activity will be executed by an implementing partner that will take lead responsibility of the preparation of the workshop logistics, material, moderation, final reporting, and technical assistance related terms of reference. The implementing partner will include a team of experts with legal background (preferably with experience in labour and social security law, as well as experts in agriculture). The team should also include experts in social dialogue and moderation.  The moderators are expected to be supported by a group of rapporteurs. 

For Interested partners, please refer to the attached TOR for further elaboration onto the composition of the Technical and Financial Proposals.