For 16 years, Mena Reda, a worker at the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater (HCWW), appointed to the second job grade, has worked eight hours a day for a monthly wage of 4200 EGP (about $89.63 USD), which is below Egypt’s minimum wage of 6000 EGP (about $128 USD). This amount is insufficient to cover his family’s basic needs.
For eight years, Reda has been waiting for any allowance to help him cope with the rising cost of living amidst 32.5% inflation and a devaluing pound. The company has stopped giving allowances to him and his colleagues since 2016 when the Egyptian pound was floated (an allowance is an annual wage increase given by the Egyptian government to improve living conditions and mitigate economic circumstances).
The Holding Company for Water and Wastewater, an Egyptian government company, was established by Presidential Decree No. 135 of 2004 and is affiliated with the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities.
“Since 2011, the company has given us a monthly meal allowance of 100 EGP ($2.13) and an additional 10 EGP ($0.21) as a water allowance! We demand the application of the minimum wage across all job grades. We submitted complaints to the Council of Ministers, but our request was not met. Workers in the company are exhausted, and many have left. We work eight hours daily and have no time or opportunity for other jobs to make ends meet, receiving extremely low wages,” says Reda, who works at the company’s branch in Minya, urging parliament members to intervene swiftly to include HCWW workers nationwide in the social protection decisions announced by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Similarly, Mohamed Oweis, who has worked at a HCWW branch in Cairo for 15 years, has not received any increase in his monthly wage, which remains below the minimum wage. His salary is equal to that of a newly hired employee, and he hasn’t received any annual or presidential allowances for ten years.
“My salary is the same as a worker who just signed a contract with the company today, despite my 15 years of service, due to the non-application of the minimum wage across all job grades, which is our main demand. We also seek the payment of overdue allowances from the past ten years and the equalization of the employment status of workers in Cairo with those in other governorates, along with the regularization of temporary contract workers,” says Oweis.
Ahmed Mahmoud has been working as a water bill collector and meter reader on a commission basis for eight years at HCWW’s Luxor branch under a temporary contract. According to these contracts, collectors receive 3% of the bill value with a maximum of 10 EGP and no basic salary or transportation allowance, except for a reading allowance of 40 EGP per ledger, making their wages range between 1500 and 3500 EGP ($32 to $74 USD).
“I, and many others like me, have no rights or fixed salary and receive our wages every 45 days instead of monthly. We are required to collect at least 70%, and often our earnings don’t exceed 2000 EGP. I demand to be contracted according to the company’s regulations, like my colleagues in other governorates,” says Mahmoud.
Workers’ Protests in the Company
Since March, there have been waves of worker protests at HCWW branches in Aswan, Giza, Qalyubia, Sohag, and Minya, demanding the application of the minimum wage as per Prime Minister’s Decree No. 631 of 2024, which raised the minimum wage for state employees and economic public authorities from March 1, 2024. The demands also include consideration of job grades, regularization of temporary workers, and commission-based water bill collectors.
The water company workers’ crisis dates back to 2016 when special and exceptional allowances were not applied to the basic wage, with management applying only part of these allowances to the gross wage, which, according to the workers we spoke to, violates laws and government decisions.
Parliamentary Representative Nashwa El-Sherif submitted an inquiry in February 2022 regarding the deprivation of water company workers from receiving special and exceptional allowances and the minimum wage, and the inclusion of these allowances in the basic wage for those not covered by the Civil Service Law, including those subject to the Public Sector Business Law.
According to documents viewed by Zawia3, 15 chairpersons of water company boards submitted a memorandum to the Presidency on March 28, 2024, to present workers’ complaints about low wages. According to workers who contacted us, management has applied the minimum wage (equivalent to 6000 EGP) only to fifth and sixth job grades, while other workers received a maximum wage increase of just over 300 EGP.
Since mid-April, company workers have been collecting signatures to appeal to President El-Sisi, asking him to approve the enforcement of judicial rulings for water company workers nationwide regarding basic wage adjustments and the application of allowances since 2016, application of the minimum wage across all job grades, increasing the periodic allowance from 7% to 15% like in the electricity company and other government companies, increasing the meal allowance to 500 EGP, regularizing all temporary workers since 2012 to date, regularizing commission-based collectors nationwide, and unifying wage calculation principles across all company branches.
Under the pressure of worker protests and complaints, the HCWW agreed in April to increase the meal allowance to 600 EGP and the water allowance to 150 EGP but did not comply with the application of the minimum wage or any other worker demands.
Company Management’s Intransigence
Gabali Al-Maraghi, Chairman of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and the Central Council of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, accuses the HCWW management of failing and being obstinate in implementing the decisions of the President and the Supreme Wages Council, even though the company is not a non-profitable service sector. He urges the company management to comply with the decision and consider workers’ conditions amid the current economic circumstances, calling on the Minister of Public Enterprise, Mahmoud Esmat, to intervene to resolve the crisis.
Al-Maraghi tells Zawia3 that many workers in some HCWW branches have not received an allowance for ten years, pointing out the illegality of continuing to employ collectors and workers on temporary contracts for several years. He explains that the law stipulates that temporary workers should be regularized after three years of contracting, provided they are not over thirty years old, whereas in reality, some workers have been on temporary contracts for about ten years and are already over thirty.
In the same context, Khaled El-Feki, Vice Chairman of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and Chairman of the General Union of Metal, Engineering, and Electrical Industries, confirms that the minimum wage application according to the Prime Minister’s decree has become effective and has already been applied to the public sector. Companies struggling to implement the decision are supposed to submit requests to their respective unions.
El-Feki tells us that the General Union of Utility Workers is responsible for the HCWW workers’ crisis, explaining that regularizing temporary workers is subject to their employer’s needs.
Social Injustice
Kamal Abu Eita, former Minister of Manpower and Migration and a labor leader, considers the non-application of the minimum wage a form of social injustice against workers amid rising prices of goods and services. He criticizes the significant increase in drinking water prices, borne by citizens and resulting in substantial company profits, without affecting workers’ and meter collectors’ wages. He describes this as a lack of social justice, which led to the January 25 and June 30 revolutions and could lead to a third revolution.
Abu Eita views working on temporary contracts without regularization as a form of slavery and exploitation, exacerbated by high unemployment rates. This leads to an oversupply of labor and employers exploiting young people’s need for work. He explains that businesses and companies resort to temporary contracts to dismiss workers at any time without financial rights or insurance and avoid liability or compensation in case of work injury or death.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in Egypt, the number of unemployed people in 2023 was about 2.159 million, with an unemployment rate of 6.9% of the total workforce, and a poverty rate of 32.5% of the population.
Demands Under Review
A source at HCWW, preferring to remain anonymous, told Zawia3 that the Minister of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities, Assem El-Gazzar, instructed the company’s Chairman, Mamdouh Raslan, in April to study board members’ demands related to increasing workers’ wages.
Raslan stated in a press release that workers’ rights are always valued and respected, and the company is keen on meeting their demands and supporting them amid the current economic conditions, noting that their demands are under review.
While Mena, Mohamed, and Ahmed hope to achieve their legitimate demands for fair wages that ensure a decent life, their struggles, shared with thousands of other workers in the company with about 135,000 employees, will continue amid the economic crisis and rising prices unless the government intervenes to put an end to this suffering, as they all described.
