Labour protests have recently been renewed on a wide scale inside the Wabariyat Samanoud factory, demanding the application of the minimum wage, the improvement of workers’ conditions and the payment of their salaries in full in a single instalment, after the period agreed as the maximum deadline for paying all overdue entitlements ended on 16 March. This pushed the workers to stage a new strike pending the implementation of their demands, which lasted until last Wednesday evening, before February’s salaries were paid in full.
The workers, who have organised several protest actions over the past two years, fear the implementation of an anticipated administrative decision to increase daily working hours from seven to eight, in addition to the delayed payment of salaries and their division into instalments, and the interruption of health insurance services since January last.
Coinciding with the strike, local websites reported the deployment of Central Security Forces and police formations around the company’s premises, which they said was for the purpose of securing the site and following up on the repercussions of the sudden work stoppage across all three shifts on which production mainly depends.
For its part, the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services expressed its concern over the escalating crises inside the company, noting that the workers’ problems are no longer limited to delayed wage payments but have extended to threatening the stability of their livelihoods.
According to the Center, the company paid only about 45% of February’s entitlements, with a promise to complete them by 16 March at the latest, which did not happen, pushing the workers to escalate to demand their financial rights.
This comes at a critical time, with Eid al-Fitr approaching along with the additional obligations it brings, at a time when the workers point to other employers bringing forward the payment of salaries and Eid bonuses to cope with the seasonal burdens.
The Center stressed that the crisis reflects a broader deterioration in the company’s situation, linked to accumulated debts and violations of basic rights, foremost among them regular wages and healthcare, as well as complaints about the non-payment of insurance contributions despite their being deducted from workers’ wages. It warned that the continuation of these policies, in the absence of effective intervention by the relevant authorities, portends wider social repercussions.
The Center called on the responsible authorities, especially the body that owns a controlling stake in the company’s shares, to intervene urgently to ensure the regular payment of full wages and to hold those responsible to account, while drawing up a plan to restructure the situation in a way that guarantees workers’ rights and restores stability to the work environment.
Kamal Abbas, executive director of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, holds the Ministry of Planning, which owns about 52% of the company’s shares, responsible for the crisis inside the Wabariyat Samanoud factory.
Abbas, speaking to Zawia3, points out that the factory’s current management has not been held to account for its failures despite the recurring crises the workers suffer. Likewise, the former Minister of Planning’s promise not to intervene has not translated into any actual measures, even though her office had been briefed on detailed reports about the management’s failure, and the matter was also raised with MP Ahmed Belal to follow up on the workers’ situation, without any change taking place.
Abbas points out that salaries are extremely low compared with the rising cost of living, and that workers who demanded the application of the minimum wage, including a number of women, were subjected to arrest and harsh security measures, such as night-time raids on homes and the intimidation of workers and their families, which he described as “illogical”, especially since demanding the minimum wage is a right stipulated by law and a decision issued by the President of the Republic.
He notes that the case of labour leader Hisham El-Banna is an example of this, as he obtained a court ruling compensating him for his arbitrary dismissal, while his natural rights to return to work remain threatened because of the management’s failure to comply with the ruling.
The Samanoud Textiles and Pile Fabrics Company was founded in 1974 in Gharbia Governorate, on an area estimated at about 22 feddans, and began operating with weaving machines valued at about EGP 600 million. The company comprises three main factories: the garment factory, the weaving factory, and the finishing and dyeing factory.
Since its founding it was affiliated with Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla El-Kubra, which owns about 22% of its shares. The shares of the remaining shareholders were distributed among a number of government bodies, including Misr Insurance Company and the National Organisation for Social Insurance.
In mid-2014 it underwent a shift in its ownership structure after the National Investment Bank entered as a main shareholder as part of a plan to restructure the company and increase its capital, following the approval of the extraordinary general assembly to inject new liquidity to restart it.
The National Investment Bank, one of the state’s financing arms and subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, injected financing of about EGP 63 million in 2014 with the aim of saving the company from liquidation.
In the same year, the company’s extraordinary general assembly approved a capital increase, with the bank entering as a main shareholder and injecting liquidity to restart the company, in addition to capitalising the debts of some of the old shareholders as part of the restructuring process. Likewise, in 2018, an additional loan worth EGP 8 million to support operations. Since then, the National Investment Bank, affiliated with the Ministry of Planning, has become the largest shareholder in the company.
Delayed salary payments
Regarding the recent protests at the company, one of the workers, who preferred not to be named, says that the company’s management began about 4 months ago paying workers’ salaries in instalments, which caused a major crisis for the workers and their families.
He adds that this system has left them unable to meet their basic obligations, especially with expenses rising during the month of Ramadan, which came a few days after the start of the second school term.
The worker, speaking to Zawia3, explains that the delayed salaries are not the only problem facing the male and female workers at the company, as more than 600 workers, most of them women, have been deprived since January last of the medical and treatment services the company used to provide through health insurance.
He adds that a large number of these workers suffer from chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, bronchial asthma and other diseases that require monthly medication, and the company has stopped dispensing these medicines, forcing them to buy treatment at their own expense despite its high cost, which has increased their financial and living burdens amid rising medicine prices and delayed salaries.
He also points to news circulating inside the company about the management’s intention to amend the work system in place for years, so that it becomes eight hours a day excluding rest breaks, instead of seven hours, which has raised fears and anger among the male and female workers.
Repeated protests and arbitrary measures
Since 2024, the Wabariyat Samanoud company has witnessed repeated labour protests, with escalating tensions between the workers and the management. In August 2024, the workers went on a strike demanding the application of the minimum wage and the improvement of their living conditions, which lasted more than a month, before they resumed work after limited wage increases were approved and the management pledged to discuss their demands. During this period, security forces arrested a number of male and female workers and referred them for investigation in case No. 7648 of 2024, Samanoud Administrative.
Although most of them were later released, punitive measures continued to be applied to them inside the company, according to the testimony of some workers who spoke to Zawia3, including suspending some of them from work and paying only parts of their wages, in addition to terminating the contracts of a number of temporary workers and dismissing some leaders over their participation in the protest actions.
Labour leader Hisham El-Banna, who was arbitrarily dismissed before the Tanta Court of Appeal ruled that he be compensated with a total of EGP 270,000 in material and moral damages, says that the crisis of the Samanoud company and of the spinning and weaving sector is not new, but part of a long-term plan to liquidate public sector companies.
El-Banna, speaking to Zawia3, believes that the state has completely withdrawn its hand from the companies and factories, even though these companies by their nature cannot be loss-making, and he points to the importance and profitability of the spinning and weaving industry, criticising a previous statement by the head of the holding company, Mohsen El-Gilani, in which he described the spinning and weaving industry as “a migrating industry”, and considering that this statement represents a disaster aimed at paving the way for transferring the industry to the private sector.
On the development and financing crisis at the Samanoud company, El-Banna says that the company had been at a standstill since 2014 and needed restructuring; the machines had not been upgraded since 1984 and were designed to produce heavy yarn such as (denim), while the market requires light yarn. He points out that the development process might cost only EGP 28 million, while the government injected EGP 71 million through the National Investment Bank, but the money was not used to upgrade the machines or hire additional workers; on the contrary, workers were laid off, and the number fell from 1,200 workers to only 500, which El-Banna considered “deliberate liquidation”.
The labour leader believes that what is happening at Wabariyat Samanoud is “a carbon copy” of what happened at other companies such as the “El-Nasr” company, where the halls were left until they collapsed on the workers, causing deaths, and the workers were then transferred to the Ghazl El-Mahalla company so that the company’s land, about 50 feddans, could be sold for investment and residential purposes.
El-Banna points out that converting the companies from the public business sector to operating under Companies Law No. 159 of 1981 opened the door to corruption and to unilateral decisions on direct sales without referring to the board of directors or holding official auctions, stressing that he has been subjected to dismissal and judicial prosecution since 2014 because of his refusal to sell the company’s assets and his exposure of the management’s deliberate policy of making the company lose money.
El-Banna explains that successive managements made a point of recording “stagnant inventory” to give the Central Auditing Organisation a justification that “the company is loss-making”, allowing decisions on liquidation or closure to be taken. He stresses that the problem lies not in the workers or the nature of the industry, which he described as profitable with “0% loss”, but in a management following a plan to make the company lose money deliberately in order to create a legal justification for liquidating and closing it.
The East Tanta Court of Appeal had issued a final ruling compensating El-Banna for his arbitrary dismissal from the company, obliging it to pay a total of EGP 270,000 in material and moral damages, in addition to EGP 2,689 for his regular leave balance.
The ruling ended a long legal battle that began over the demand by El-Banna and his colleagues for the application of the minimum wage, after the defence team appealed the first-instance ruling, which had been issued for his dismissal without entitlements, alleging that he had “harmed the establishment and incited a strike”; the appeal established that the criminal penalty lapses once the police report filed by the company has been shelved, which entitles him to compensation for arbitrary dismissal, although the court refused to overturn the dismissal decision and reinstate him.
For its part, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights welcomed the ruling issued in favour of Hisham El-Banna, and at the same time demanded the reinstatement of the workers and employees who were arbitrarily dismissed over their demands for their legitimate rights.
It stressed the need to immediately stop intimidation practices against workers in the public and private sectors, affirming that the government would do better to intervene to put an end to private sector companies evading the application of the minimum wage decision, instead of pursuing workers through the security services merely for exercising their constitutional rights.
Workers’ rights and the responsibility of social insurance
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services revealed in a statement that the crisis of the interruption of health services for the male and female workers at the Wabariyat Samanoud company stems from the halt in renewing the insurance cards of the company’s employees as a result of the non-payment of the contributions due. This measure led to the suspension of the treatment services provided to about 500 workers.
Commenting, lawyer Rahma Refaat, programme coordinator at the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, says that the law guarantees workers the full right to obtain all services, including health services, and also regulates how to deal with cases in which the employer does not pay contributions; the Social Insurance Authority is supposed to contact the employer to demand payment, in accordance with the provisions of Social Insurance Law No. 148 of 2019 and its executive regulations. She stresses that in all cases the workers’ right remains protected, especially since the contributions are actually deducted from their wages.
Rahma adds that the National Organisation for Social Insurance is responsible for taking legal action against an employer who refuses to pay, while the workers continue to benefit from health services, and the workers can file lawsuits against the management or the authority if the latter refuses to provide the service, because “deducting contributions and not remitting them constitutes the unlawful seizure of workers’ money”.
She explains that workers can file complaints with the prosecution against the employer on charges of seizing their money, noting that some workers sought legal advice from the Center and the steps were explained to them, but they are still hesitant for fear of retaliatory measures by the management, even though they are about to begin those proceedings.
Rahma notes that the management follows a policy of ignoring and is not easily inclined to negotiate, pointing out that workers always prefer to resolve problems through negotiation before resorting to legal proceedings or strikes, but “the management is not prepared and relies on the logic of ignoring”.
On the recurrence of protests from 2024 until now, she says that it “is due to the management ignoring the workers’ demands. The workers resort to a gradual escalation from complaints to the labour office, then reports, all the way to a strike.”
The new Labour Law and the protection of workers
Lawyer Rahma Refaat explains that the new Labour Law introduced Articles 104 and 105, which oblige employers to apply the decisions of the Supreme Council for Wages, and also oblige the inspection bodies affiliated with the Ministry of Labour to monitor implementation and refer violations to court. She points out that the prescribed penalty is a deterrent fine ranging between EGP 2,000 and EGP 20,000 per worker, which increases if the violation is repeated, stressing that the fine may be more costly than applying the minimum wage.
On the other hand, Rahma believes that the main crisis lies in “implementation mechanisms” and the availability of inspection campaigns, noting that social insurance offices have judicial police powers but sometimes take no action, and some offices may refuse to receive workers’ complaints, which makes the law’s implementation “lame”, as she put it.
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services stated in its statement that depriving workers of their right to treatment because of the company’s debts constitutes a flagrant violation of their basic rights, especially in light of complaints received from workers suffering from chronic and serious illnesses, including heart disease and tumours, whose treatment follow-up has stopped because they are unable to obtain insurance services.
Article 104 of the new Labour Law obliges all establishments subject to the provisions of the law to implement the decisions of the National Council for Wages within each establishment, and Article 105 of the same law requires the inspection bodies affiliated with the competent ministry to carry out periodic examinations and inspections to verify establishments’ compliance with the decisions of the National Council for Wages, while obliging employers or their representatives to keep records (paper or electronic) containing the data of employees and the wages due to each of them.
The workers’ crisis and the Ministry of Planning’s conflict of interest
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms announced, via its hotline, that it had received multiple complaints from workers of the Wabariyat Samanoud Spinning and Weaving Company in Gharbia Governorate, relating to delays in and deductions from wage payments over the past months, in addition to the company management’s announcement of its intention to increase daily working hours from seven to eight.
The Commission stressed that this unilateral decision, taken without any consultation with the workers or their representatives, constitutes a curtailment of acquired rights the workers have enjoyed for many years, and a clear violation of the Labour Law, which prohibits amending working conditions or infringing on benefits without a clear legal agreement. The Commission pointed out that salary delays have reached more than half of the wage in some cases, directly affecting the workers’ lives, especially those whose years of service exceed 22 years, and that the sudden change in the banks paying salaries has prevented a large number of them from receiving their entitlements.
The Commission believes that the management’s intransigence in responding to the workers’ demands is closely linked to the company’s ambiguous ownership structure, as government bodies control about 65% of its shares, among them the National Investment Bank (affiliated with the Ministry of Planning) and the National Organisation for Social Insurance, while the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development chairs the National Council for Wages, tasked with ensuring the application of the minimum wage, which constitutes a clear conflict between its role as supervisor of the application of the minimum wage and its role as a main shareholder in the company.
In this context, the Commission called for “opening an urgent investigation into the wage delays and the management’s practices, halting any unilateral decisions affecting the workers’ acquired rights, ensuring the payment of wages in full and on their legal dates, applying the minimum wage, halting any security or administrative practices targeting workers over their legitimate demands, and not using the ownership structure as a means of evading legal obligations”.
The crisis of the male and female workers at the Wabariyat Samanoud Spinning and Weaving Company continues amid accusations by rights advocates and workers that the Ministry of Planning has failed in its responsibilities to monitor the management, given a clear conflict of interest arising from its ownership of a large stake in the company and its presence on the board of directors, while at the same time it is responsible for supervising the application of the minimum wage.
On the other hand, the legal demands of the male and female workers, including the payment of wages on time and access to healthcare, remain stuck as a result of weak enforcement mechanisms and the absence of accountability. Meanwhile, rights institutions and organisations are demanding an end to these violations and guarantees of workers’ rights, including fair wages and humane working conditions, not using the ownership structure as a means of evading legal obligations, and an end to the security pursuit of male and female workers.
