In its first practical test, Egypt’s new Labour Law, No. 14 of 2025, which took effect on 1 September, had not yet secured minimum-wage compliance from a number of companies and establishments. Reported violations extended beyond private businesses to state-owned factories.
About three and a half months later, workers continued protesting for enforcement. Drawing on newspaper archives and workers’ statements, Zawia3 documented approximately 42 protests between September and mid-December 2025, across sugar factories, water companies, furniture manufacturers, hydropower facilities and newspapers. Despite officials’ promises, many workers reported earnings below the legal floor. Some also described management reprisals, raising questions about enforcement and workplace oversight.
The private-sector minimum wage of EGP 7,000 was set by a National Wages Council decision effective from 1 March 2025, before the new law entered into force. It should therefore not be confused with the separate July increase for state employees linked in the Arabic source. The new law gives the council responsibilities for national wage policy and requires establishments to implement its decisions.
Newspapers and the minimum-wage crisis
Since mid-November, journalists at Al-Bawaba’s newsroom had been holding an open-ended sit-in over failure to apply the minimum wage. This followed a similar action at Al-Wafd, reflecting a growing crisis in newspaper pay.
Many Al-Bawaba journalists earned no more than EGP 2,000 monthly. The protesters demanded the legal minimum, while management rejected Syndicate proposals, saying it lacked the resources to meet its obligations.
Mahmoud El-Batakoushi, one of the journalists taking part, tells Zawia3 that negotiations begun weeks earlier remained stalled. According to what they had been told by Journalists Syndicate chairman Khaled El-Balshy, a general assembly due to consider board chairman Abdel-Rahim Ali’s resignation and the institution’s liquidation had been postponed for two weeks. Unidentified new parties had entered discussions. “We were told they were government bodies, possibly including the Labour Ministry, but no body was officially identified,” El-Batakoushi says.
No clear timetable had been announced for resolving the crisis or implementing the minimum wage. He alleges that management punished the journalists by withholding November salaries, still only around EGP 2,000, cutting the protesters’ internet connection and attempting to force them out of the newsroom.
Negotiations long preceded the sit-in. Journalists submitted several memoranda to the chairman and repeatedly received promises that produced no action, he says. At a May meeting, management explicitly said it had no money, after which negotiations stopped entirely.
Management subsequently proposed what he describes as evasive alternatives: settlements based on existing wages and dates of appointment, reducing attendance to two days weekly, or liquidation. He considers these attempts to empty the institution rather than resolve its wage problem. The protesters refused to abandon their demands, foremost the minimum wage.
Journalists reporting salaries of around EGP 2,000 a month were demanding the EGP 7,000 minimum—while, according to a participant, their already low November wages were withheld.
The new law restricts employers from seeking full or partial closure or reducing activities during collective-dispute settlement procedures, or because of or during a strike. The Labour Ministry reported preparing three violation reports against Al-Bawaba News over minimum-wage non-compliance. Inspectors reviewed the institution’s legal position following reports of employee protests.
Before the Al-Bawaba sit-in, Al-Wafd journalists had held a roughly five-day sit-in. El-Balshy and the Syndicate board intervened and negotiated an agreement to apply the minimum wage.
Protests spread across workplaces
November saw about 30 protests at different water-company sites. Workers temporarily suspended their actions to give management time to respond. Protests resumed on 11 December as demands remained unresolved, according to the reports cited. Their demands included higher incentives, permanent appointment of temporary staff and progressive minimum-wage implementation. Actions took place in Cairo, Sharqiya, Alexandria, Giza and Minya.
Five sugar factories—Edfu, Dishna, Armant, Kom Ombo and Hawamdiya—also witnessed protests in the preceding months over the minimum wage and living conditions.
The crisis began in late August, when workers at Edfu and Kom Ombo in Aswan went on strike. They sought higher salaries, overdue increments dating to 2017, the minimum wage and state-approved cost-of-living grants. The strike lasted more than three weeks before gradually subsiding in mid-September. Meetings between worker representatives, the food-industries general union and local officials produced promises to implement some demands and study others over subsequent months.
Committee for Justice reported that Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company transferred six workers from Edfu and Kom Ombo to Hawamdiya. Workers considered this disciplinary retaliation for protesting.
They continued seeking the minimum wage, incorporation of increments set aside since 2016 and an end to health-insurance deductions of approximately EGP 1,000 monthly. They said they had not received three presidentially approved increments.
A company circular dated 2 September provided EGP 500 per worker as part of the monthly incentive. Workers reported receiving only about EGP 320 after deductions, while other demands remained unmet even after production returned to normal.
At the end of October, Committee for Justice reported that National Security in Aswan summoned ten Edfu sugar-factory workers. The organisation said they were warned against future strikes or protests and threatened with penalties.
Hundreds of workers at Arafa Market in Fayoum also protested for the minimum wage. They reported earnings of EGP 2,500–3,000 monthly despite working up to 12 hours a day. Workers filed complaints with the Labour Ministry but said no oversight action followed. They linked rising resignations to low wages and inadequate inspection.
Workers at Al-Ahly Club’s four branches protested over unfulfilled promises of minimum-wage implementation and salary increases.
In late November, Hydro Plants Electricity Production Company workers at the High Dam, Aswan 1 and Aswan 2 stations protested poor working conditions and failure to honour basic rights, particularly the minimum wage. Their action developed into an overnight workplace sit-in, which ended after the chairman promised to meet their demands within two months.
At Mefco Helwan furniture company, around 400 workers protested alleged refusal to implement the wage floor. Committee for Justice reported monthly pay of EGP 3,300–4,000, including for employees with more than 35 years’ service. Workers complained to Helwan’s labour office; the case was referred to court with a first hearing 66 days later, a delay they considered unjustified.
The organisation also reported reprisals: one worker was referred for investigation, another suspended for four days with three days’ pay deducted. Production continued while demands remained unresolved.
Reported monthly earnings compared with the wage floor
| Workplace | Reported earnings (EGP) | Private-sector minimum (EGP) |
|---|---|---|
| Al-Bawaba | Around 2,000 | 7,000 |
| Arafa Market | 2,500–3,000 | 7,000 |
| Mefco Helwan | 3,300–4,000 | 7,000 |
A legal entitlement and an enforcement gap
As protests continued, the Labour Ministry announced an inspection campaign led by Minister Mohamed Gobran in the Tenth of Ramadan industrial zone, including checks on minimum-wage compliance.
The ministry gave 949 establishments time to bring themselves into compliance before penalties. Inspection director Sayed El-Sharqawi said persistent violations would lead to reports referred to prosecutors. He cited fines of EGP 20,000–100,000 and increased penalties for repetition, with the number of affected workers relevant to their application.
Labour researcher Hassan El-Barbary identifies three factors behind the protests. First, the EGP 7,000 decision was announced in February for implementation in March, before the transition from the 2003 to the 2025 labour law. He argues that the ministry failed to organise effective inspections at that stage and that earlier enforcement could have prevented much of the later unrest.
Second, he cites increases of approximately 10–13.5% in basic-goods prices between 2024 and 2025, which he attributes to Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics data. The range is his account and does not identify a single comparable inflation series. Workers earning EGP 3,500–5,500 faced mounting pressure while remaining below the wage floor.
Third, some state-linked electricity, gas and water companies operate parallel wage arrangements connected to different employment frameworks. Workers seek a unified system, equal treatment, consolidated increments and minimum-wage coverage for all, he says.
El-Barbary argues that the absence, at the time of reporting, of a clear implementing regulation weakened enforcement. Relying on successive ministerial decisions left implementation subject to ministerial discretion and slowed their issue and execution.
He also says the ministry had not effectively used collective-dispute mechanisms such as conciliation, mediation and arbitration during the period since September. He considers these failures a major reason protests persisted and expanded, and calls for effective implementing rules and uniform enforcement.
Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016 governs specified government ministries, departments, local authorities and public bodies. Other groups and institutions are subject to special statutory frameworks. A state-owned company’s employment regime must therefore be distinguished from that of a civil-service employee rather than assuming all public-sector workers share one system.
The Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services and the Committee for the Defence of Trade Union Freedoms and Labour Rights welcomed the inspections but demanded sustained, serious and transparent action. Their joint statement described limited progress during 2025 and called for regular inspections rather than waiting for protests or complaints. Workers making complaints should be protected and their identities kept confidential when requested.
Is the problem the law itself?
Kamal Abbas, general coordinator of the Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services, argues that the minimum-wage provisions themselves have not failed: the text is clear, while implementation is the problem.
Employers often prioritise profit over wages, safe working conditions, healthcare and safe transport, he says. Many employees still receive less than EGP 4,000 despite long service. He describes the present inspections as more media propaganda than a regular enforcement process.
“The problem is implementation on the ground,” Abbas argues. A published minimum wage means little if it does not appear in workers’ actual pay.
Labour inspectors can formally record violations, yet inspections are not daily and systematic, he says. The weakness of effective independent unions in private businesses further limits workers’ ability to claim their rights.
Abbas also cites the My Linen Group case, involving the death of an infant and allegations concerning closure of a workplace nursery. He considers it evidence of unlawful wage and worker-rights practices despite the presence of an independent union. This account should not be read as a medically established finding that the closure alone caused the death.
He calls for stronger independent unions, routine ministry oversight and genuine, transparent wage enforcement beyond publicity campaigns or ministerial visits to large establishments.
Labour lawyer Yasser Saad argues that penalties under both the old and new laws are too weak to compel employers. Workers who complain or sue can face arbitrary measures, including dismissal, encouraging silence out of fear for their livelihoods.
He favours stronger economic sanctions, including licensing or registration consequences for persistent non-compliance, and attributes similar recommendations to international labour bodies. The original report does not identify a specific International Labour Organization instrument supporting that exact sanction, so it is presented here as his account rather than an independently verified ILO recommendation.
Inspectors’ official reports provide valuable court evidence, Saad says, but do not in themselves guarantee continued employment or income. Workers remain exposed when they demand their rights.
He argues that available settlement mechanisms do not automatically force an employer to accept demands. Collective bargaining can, however, produce an agreement between workers, employers and the ministry setting rights and obligations for a three-year period.
From newsroom sit-ins to sugar and water-company protests, the cases demonstrate demands for effective enforcement, stronger independent unions and continuous oversight—so that the minimum wage becomes an actual entitlement rather than words on paper.
