The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services announced that 1.300 workers from the Ofuq Company for Investment and Industrial Development “Ceramica Granito” are currently on their fifth day as the company’s management continued to ignore the workers’ demands or communicate with them in order to reach a solution.
The workers had organized a sit-in inside the company’s headquarters in Sadat Industrial City in Menoufia Governorate last Thursday, August 6, 2020, in protest against the administration’s procrastination in responding to their demands to raise wages with increases commensurate with the high cost of living and the rise in the prices of goods and services. Requests that the workers always demanded and did not receive any attention from the administration and did not negotiate with the workers about them.
Workers demands also included raising the meal allowance, as it has been set at 13 pounds per day for a long time, and disbursing the late profits that were not spent, as the management used to disburse the profits before it had stopped doing so three years ago under the pretext that the company’s financial situation is weak.
However, the employees’ response was that the company has not stopped working despite all the surrounding circumstances, and that the production and sales have not stopped, as well as export operations to Arab countries, also noting that the company’s stores do not have stagnant production.
On the other hand, the administration issued yesterday, Sunday, August 9, 2020, a leaflet warning workers against carrying out any actions to disrupt work or riot and sabotage … a matter that angered workers and was considered a publication of threats and an act of intimidation to workers.
This coincided with what was said by the managing director of the company, chairman of its board of directors, and former Minister of Business Sector, Dr. Mukhtar’s speech.
Mukhtar said that “we may consider increasing wages in January according to the financial situation of the company during that period”. Workers considered such statement a new provocation from the management and that the financial position of the company according to the workers is very good and it is not worth it to wait for the next five months to respond to their demands. Workers asked to be granted their minimum rights in wage increases, which the company has not implemented in years.
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, in solidarity with the workers in their legitimate demands, demanded that all responsible authorities need to intervene to solve the crisis, and force the company’s management to negotiate to reach an agreement that safeguards the workers’ rights and fulfills their demands.
#Egypt #SitIn #Demands #WorkersRights #Protest
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