Workers at the Samanoud Textiles and Terry Fabrics factory recently resumed widespread protests demanding the minimum wage, better conditions and full payment of salaries in one instalment. After the March 16 deadline agreed for settling arrears passed, they began another strike, which continued until the previous Wednesday evening before their February salaries were paid in full.
Workers who have staged several protests over the past two years fear a prospective management decision extending the working day from seven to eight hours. They also face late salaries paid in instalments and health-insurance services suspended since January.
Local news outlets reported Central Security Forces and police deployed around the company during the strike, describing their purpose as securing the site and monitoring the interruption of all three production shifts.
The Center for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) expressed concern that problems had escalated beyond late wages to threaten workers’ livelihoods. Its statement said only around 45% of February wages had initially been paid, with a promise to settle the remainder by March 16 that was not met.
The dispute arose just before Eid al-Fitr, when families faced additional expenses. Workers noted that other employers had brought forward salary and holiday-bonus payments to ease seasonal pressures.
CTUWS said accumulating debts and breaches of basic rights—including regular wages and healthcare—reflected wider deterioration. Workers also complained that social-insurance contributions were not remitted despite being deducted from their pay. The organisation warned of broader social consequences without effective intervention.
It urged the responsible bodies, particularly the shareholder controlling the company, to ensure full, regular wages, hold those responsible accountable and restructure operations while safeguarding workers’ rights.
Kamal Abbas, CTUWS executive director, holds the Planning Ministry responsible, citing its National Investment Bank’s approximately 52% stake. He told Zawia3 that management had not been held accountable despite repeated failures. The former planning minister’s assurance of non-interference had not produced action, although her office received detailed reports on management failures. The matter was also raised with MP Ahmed Bilal, without bringing change, Abbas says.
Abbas says wages are extremely low relative to living costs. Workers seeking the minimum wage, including women, faced arrests and harsh security measures such as nighttime home raids that frightened their families. He called this unreasonable, describing the minimum wage as a legal entitlement established by a presidential decision.
He cites labour leader Hisham al-Banna, who obtained compensation for unfair dismissal but still faces uncertainty over his employment rights. As the court outcome discussed below makes clear, compensation did not include a reinstatement order.
Samanoud Textiles and Terry Fabrics was established in 1974 in Gharbia governorate on approximately 22 feddans. The report values its weaving machinery at around EGP 600 million. It comprises clothing, weaving, and finishing and dyeing factories.
Originally affiliated with Misr Spinning and Weaving in Mahalla al-Kubra, which holds about 22% of its shares, it also has government-linked shareholders including Misr Insurance and the National Social Insurance Authority.
Its ownership structure changed in mid-2014 when the National Investment Bank became a principal shareholder under a restructuring and recapitalisation plan approved by an extraordinary general assembly.
The state bank, overseen by the Planning and Economic Development Ministry, provided approximately EGP 63 million in 2014 to rescue the company from liquidation. The restructuring included new operating liquidity and capitalisation of debts owed to some existing shareholders. A further EGP 8 million loan followed in 2018. The bank became the largest shareholder.
Salaries Paid Late and in Instalments
A worker who asked not to be named says management began paying salaries in instalments around four months earlier, creating serious problems for families.
This left them unable to meet basic commitments, he says, especially as Ramadan expenses followed shortly after the second school term began.
The worker told Zawia3 that more than 600 employees, mostly women, had been deprived of the medical services previously provided through company health insurance since January. A CTUWS statement cited below gives approximately 500 affected workers; these are separate source estimates, not a single verified headcount.
Many suffer chronic conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma and need monthly medication, he says. The company stopped supplying it, forcing them to buy treatment despite rising drug prices and delayed wages.
He also reports discussion inside the company of extending daily working hours from seven to eight, excluding breaks, which has alarmed workers.
Repeated Protests and Punitive Measures
The company has experienced repeated labour protests since 2024. An August 2024 strike seeking the minimum wage and better living conditions lasted more than a month. Workers returned after limited wage increases and management promises to discuss their demands. Security forces arrested workers and referred them for investigation in Samanoud administrative case No. 7648 of 2024.
Most were subsequently released, but workers interviewed by Zawia3 say punitive measures continued inside the factory, including suspensions, partial wages, termination of temporary contracts and dismissal of labour leaders involved in the protests.
Hisham al-Banna, who was unfairly dismissed and awarded EGP 270,000 in compensation by the Tanta Court of Appeal, sees the company’s crisis as part of what he alleges is a long-term plan to liquidate public-sector textile companies.
He argues that the state has withdrawn support from factories in an inherently valuable and profitable industry. He criticises a previous statement by holding-company head Mohsen al-Gilani describing textiles as a “migrating industry”, interpreting it as preparation for transferring production to the private sector.
Al-Banna says Samanoud had stopped operating in 2014 and needed restructuring. Machinery had not been upgraded since 1984 and was designed for heavy fabrics such as denim while the market demanded lighter products. He estimates upgrading would cost only EGP 28 million, against EGP 71 million provided through the National Investment Bank. In his account, the money did not modernise machinery or recruit staff; instead employment fell from 1,200 to 500. He calls this “deliberate liquidation”.
He compares it with what he says happened at other companies, including al-Nasr: factory buildings were left to deteriorate until they collapsed on workers, causing deaths; workers were then transferred to Mahalla, allowing approximately 50 feddans of land to be sold for investment and housing. These are al-Banna’s allegations and interpretation.
Al-Banna argues that moving companies from the public-business framework to Companies Law No. 159 of 1981 enabled corruption and unilateral direct sales without board approval or formal auctions. He says his dismissal and legal prosecution since 2014 followed his opposition to asset sales and his exposure of what he alleges was deliberate loss-making.
He alleges successive managers recorded “idle inventory” to justify reporting losses to the Central Auditing Organization and support liquidation or closure. In his view, workers and the industry are not the problem; he describes the industry as capable of “0% losses” and accuses management of manufacturing a legal justification for closure.
The East Tanta Court of Appeal issued a final judgment ordering EGP 270,000 in material and moral compensation for al-Banna’s unfair dismissal, plus EGP 2,689 for unused annual leave.
The decision ended a lengthy dispute that began after he and colleagues demanded the minimum wage. His defence appealed a first-instance ruling dismissing him without entitlements over allegations of harming the business and inciting a strike. According to the account cited in the report, the appeal established that the criminal basis fell away after the company’s complaint was shelved, entitling him to compensation. The court nevertheless rejected cancellation of his dismissal and reinstatement.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) welcomed the judgment and called for reinstatement of workers unfairly dismissed for demanding legitimate rights. It urged an immediate end to intimidation in public and private workplaces, arguing that the government should enforce the minimum wage rather than pursue workers for exercising constitutional rights.
Workers’ Rights and Social Insurance
CTUWS said healthcare stopped because employee insurance cards were not renewed after the company failed to pay contributions. Its statement put the number affected at approximately 500.
Rahma Refaat, a lawyer and CTUWS programme coordinator, says workers retain the right to all benefits, including healthcare. Social Insurance Law No. 148 of 2019 and its executive regulations govern employers’ non-payment, requiring the authority to pursue the employer, she explains. Workers’ rights remain protected, especially when contributions have already been deducted.
Refaat says the National Social Insurance Authority must take legal action against employers withholding contributions while maintaining workers’ access to healthcare. Workers may sue management or the authority if services are denied. She describes deducted contributions that are not remitted as wrongful appropriation of workers’ money.
She says workers can submit complaints to prosecutors alleging appropriation by the employer. Some have sought legal advice from CTUWS and received guidance, but fear retaliation even as they consider taking those steps.
Refaat says management tends to ignore complaints and resists negotiation. Workers prefer dialogue before litigation or strikes, but, in her words, management is “not ready and relies on a logic of disregard”.
She attributes repeated protests since 2024 to that disregard: workers move gradually from labour-office complaints to formal reports and ultimately strikes.
The New Labour Law and Enforcement
Refaat says Articles 104 and 105 of the new Labour Law require compliance with wage-council decisions and Ministry of Labour inspections and referral of violations to court. She cites fines of EGP 2,000–20,000 per affected worker, increased for repeat offences, arguing that non-compliance may cost more than paying the minimum wage.
The main problem, she argues, is enforcement and the availability of inspection campaigns. Social-insurance offices have judicial enforcement powers but sometimes fail to act or even refuse workers’ complaints, leaving implementation, as she puts it, “limping”.
CTUWS described denial of treatment over company debts as a serious violation of basic rights. Workers with chronic and severe conditions, including heart disease and cancer, complained that treatment follow-up had stopped because they could not access insured services.
Article 104 requires covered establishments to implement National Council for Wages decisions. Article 105 requires periodic inspections by the competent ministry and obliges employers or their representatives to maintain paper or electronic records of workers and wages owed.
The Ownership Question and Conflicting Roles
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) said its hotline received multiple complaints from Samanoud workers about delayed and reduced wages and management plans to extend the day from seven to eight hours.
ECRF argues that changing hours without consultation with workers or their representatives undermines long-established benefits and breaches protections against unagreed changes to conditions. Some workers received less than half their wages, it says, including employees with over 22 years’ service. A sudden change of salary-payment banks also prevented many from receiving their money.
The commission links management’s refusal to respond to the ownership structure: government bodies collectively control approximately 65%, including the National Investment Bank and National Social Insurance Authority. It sees a conflict between the Planning Ministry’s oversight of the National Council for Wages and its role through a principal shareholder. The 65% collective figure differs from the approximately 52% bank stake cited by Abbas.
ECRF called for an urgent investigation into delayed wages and management practices, suspension of unilateral changes to acquired benefits, full and timely pay, enforcement of the minimum wage and an end to security or administrative targeting of workers. It urged that ownership arrangements not be used to evade legal obligations.
The dispute continues amid workers’ and rights advocates’ accusations that the Planning Ministry has failed to supervise management effectively while its shareholder role overlaps with wage-policy oversight. Regular pay and healthcare remain affected by weak enforcement and limited accountability. Rights organisations demand fair wages, humane conditions and an end to the security pursuit of workers.
