{"id":17001,"date":"2025-12-27T13:13:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T11:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17001"},"modified":"2026-10-24T15:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T13:02:24","slug":"workers-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/workers-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt\u2019s New Labour Law: 42 Protests in Its First Months as the Minimum Wage Remains \u201cInk on Paper\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In its first practical test, the new <\/span>Labour Law<\/span><\/a> No. 14 of 2025, which came into force on 1 September, has so far failed to compel some owners of companies and establishments to apply the minimum wage. The failure has not been limited to the private sector; the violations have also included state-owned factories.<\/span><\/p>\n

After about three and a half months, labour protests demanding the implementation of the law continue. Zawia3 monitored about 42 protests during the period from September to mid-December this year, based on newspaper archives and statements issued by workers, covering various sectors, from<\/span> sugar<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> water <\/span><\/a>factories to <\/span>furniture companies<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>hydropower stations<\/span><\/a> and also <\/span>press institutions<\/span><\/a>. Despite officials’ promises, many workers are still paid wages below the legal minimum, while their protest actions sometimes face retaliatory measures from management, which points to the failure of the law’s practical application and the absence of actual oversight of workplaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span> law<\/span><\/a> obliges all private-sector establishments to apply the <\/span>minimum <\/span><\/a>wage of EGP 7,000, as a legal right aimed at guaranteeing a decent life for workers and taking into account the steadily rising cost of living. The law also gave the National Wages Council, under <\/span>Article <\/span><\/a>(102), the task of monitoring the mechanisms for implementing the minimum wage at the national level, while obliging all establishments to implement its decisions under Article (104), with no reduction of them permitted under any circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading: <\/b>“Wage crumbs”: the Al-Wafd crisis diagnoses the economic collapse in journalists’ lives<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Press institutions and the minimum wage crisis<\/b><\/h1>\n

Since mid-November, the editorial headquarters of the Al-Bawaba newspaper has been the site of an <\/span>open-ended sit-in <\/span><\/a>staged by journalists in protest against the failure to apply the minimum wage stipulated in the new Labour Law. The sit-in comes only one month after a similar action by journalists at the <\/span>Al-Wafd newspaper<\/span><\/a>, an indicator of the escalating wage crisis inside press institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The protesters, many of whom earn no more than EGP 2,000 a month, are<\/span> demanding<\/span><\/a> their legal right to the application of the minimum wage, while the newspaper’s management rejects the proposals submitted by the Journalists Syndicate council, justifying its position by the unavailability of the financial resources needed to meet its legal obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mahmoud El-Batakoshy, one of the journalists taking part in the sit-in, tells Zawia3 that the negotiations, which began weeks ago, remain stalled so far. The latest they were informed of, according to statements by the head of the Journalists Syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, is the postponement by two weeks of the general assembly that had been scheduled to consider the resignation of the journalist and writer Abdel Rahim Ali, chairman of the board, and the liquidation of the institution, with “new parties” entering the crisis without their identity being clearly disclosed. He adds: “We were told they are government bodies, and the Ministry of Labour may be among them, but no body has been officially specified”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regarding the urgent demands, he points out that no clear timetable has been announced for resolving the crisis or for applying the minimum wage, explaining that the institution’s management decided to punish the journalists by withholding the November salaries, which amount to no more than about EGP 2,000, so far, in addition to cutting off the internet to the protesters and attempts to drive them out of the sit-in site.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the background of the crisis, El-Batakoshy explains that attempts at negotiation began long before the sit-in, as the journalists submitted several memos to the chairman of the board, receiving repeated promises to resolve the crisis, but these promises, according to him, were not translated into actual measures. He adds that “a meeting was held last May, during which the management explicitly informed the journalists that there was no money, before the doors of negotiation were closed completely”.<\/span><\/p>\n

El-Batakoshy points out that the management later put forward several “solutions” that he described as “evasive”, including offering the journalists the option of a settlement at their current wages from the date of appointment, or reducing attendance days to two days a week, in addition to putting the option of “liquidation” on the table as one of the solutions. But El-Batakoshy believes these are not solutions to a wage crisis, but attempts to empty the institution. In return, the protesters refuse to give up their demands, foremost among them the application of the minimum wage, according to El-Batakoshy.<\/span><\/p>\n

It should be noted that the new Labour Law prohibits the employer from applying for the full or partial closure of the establishment, or reducing the size of its activity, throughout the stages of settling collective labour disputes, and also prohibits him from taking this measure because of a strike or during one.<\/p>\n

For its part, the Ministry of Labour<\/a> filed three reports against the Al-Bawaba News newspaper for violating the provisions on the minimum wage, as part of monitoring the implementation of the new Labour Law No. (14) of 2025. The inspection campaign<\/a> came in response to reports of a protest by a number of the newspaper’s employees over the failure to comply with the application of the minimum wage. Inspectors from the Labour Directorate reviewed the legal situation inside the institution to verify the extent of its compliance with the rules regulating labour relations, in accordance with the provisions of the law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A month and a half before the <\/span>sit-in<\/span><\/a> of the Al-Bawaba journalists, journalists at the Al-Wafd newspaper staged a sit-in that lasted about five days, before the Journalists Syndicate council, headed by the head of the syndicate, Khaled El-Balshy, intervened to negotiate with the newspaper’s management and <\/span>reach <\/span><\/a>an agreement guaranteeing the application of the minimum wage inside the institution.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Escalating labour protests<\/b><\/h1>\n

Last November saw about thirty labour protests at scattered sites by workers of the drinking water company, and the workers decided to suspend their protest actions temporarily to give the management an opportunity to respond to their demands. However, these actions <\/span>returned <\/span><\/a>to the fore again on 11 December this year, amid the continued disregard of the <\/span>demands, <\/span><\/a>foremost among them increasing incentives, making temporary workers permanent, and the gradual application of the minimum wage. These protests took place in a number of governorates, including Cairo, Sharqia, Alexandria, Giza and Minya.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same context, five sugar factories in Egypt, the Edfu, Deshna, Armant, Kom Ombo and Hawamdeya factories, saw scattered labour protests in recent months over similar demands relating to the application of the minimum wage and improving workers’ living conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The roots of the crisis go back to late August, when workers at the Edfu and Kom Ombo factories in Aswan Governorate <\/span>announced <\/span><\/a>a strike, demanding higher salaries, the payment of bonuses overdue since 2017, the application of the minimum wage, as well as the payment of cost-of-living grants previously approved by the state. The strike lasted more than three weeks before gradually receding in mid-September, following direct <\/span>meetings <\/span><\/a>that brought together workers’ representatives with a delegation from the board of the General Union of Food Industries and local officials, which resulted in promises to implement part of the demands, with the rest postponed for study during the following months.<\/span><\/p>\n

For its part, the Committee for Justice <\/span>reported <\/span><\/a>that the management of the Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company transferred six workers from the Edfu and Kom Ombo factories to the company’s factory in Hawamdeya, a step the workers considered a disciplinary measure over their participation in the protests.<\/span><\/p>\n

During these actions, the workers held on to their demands relating to the application of the minimum wage, the incorporation of the bonuses set aside since 2016, and stopping the deduction of the health insurance contribution, which amounts to about EGP 1,000 a month, at a time when they had not received any of the three bonuses previously approved for workers by the President of the Republic.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an attempt to contain the situation, the company’s management issued a circular dated 2 September providing for the payment of EGP 500 to each worker as part of the month’s incentive, but the net amount after tax deduction did not exceed EGP 320, while the rest of the demands remained unmet, even though work returned to normal.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of last October, the Committee for Justice<\/a> documented the National Security Agency of the Ministry of Interior in Aswan Governorate summoning ten workers from the Edfu sugar factory, one of the factories of the Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, which is affiliated with the Holding Company for Food Industries, in order to warn the workers about the consequences of thinking of going on strike or engaging in any form of protest in the coming period, with threats of penalties should that happen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the same time, <\/span>hundreds of workers <\/span><\/a>at the “Arafa Market” chain of stores in Fayoum Governorate protested, demanding the application of the minimum wage, after stating that their salaries do not exceed EGP 2,500 to 3,000 a month, despite long working hours reaching 12 hours a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The workers submitted <\/span>official complaints<\/span><\/a> to the Ministry of Labour against the company’s management, but no oversight measures were taken, and they stressed that the failure to apply the minimum wage and the absence of oversight had led to rising rates of monthly resignations among workers. Likewise, a large number of workers at the four<\/span> branches of Al-Ahly Club<\/span><\/a> staged a protest stand, objecting to the failure to fulfil the promises made by the board of directors regarding the application of the minimum wage and raising salaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of November, <\/span>workers <\/span><\/a>of the Hydro Power Plants Electricity Production Company at the High Dam, Aswan 1 and Aswan 2 stations in Aswan Governorate staged a protest stand against inappropriate working conditions and the failure to respect the basic rights guaranteed by law, most notably the application of the minimum wage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The protests developed into a sit-in with the workers spending the night at the work sites, before the workers ended their sit-in after receiving promises from the chairman of the board to implement their demands within the next two months.<\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, 400 workers at the MAFCO Helwan furniture company <\/span>staged <\/span><\/a>a protest against the company’s management, accusing it of refusing to implement the binding decision to apply the minimum wage. The<\/span> Committee for Justice<\/span><\/a> documented that the workers are paid wages ranging between EGP 3,300 and EGP 4,000 a month, even though some of them have spent more than 35 years in service. The workers filed a complaint with the Helwan Labour Office, which referred it to the court and set the first hearing after 66 days, which the workers considered an unjustified postponement. Meanwhile, the management took retaliatory measures against some workers, including referring one of them for investigation, suspending another from work for four days and deducting three days from his wage, while production operations continued normally, ignoring the workers’ demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recommended reading:<\/b> How did the death of a female worker’s daughter at the “Linen” factory expose a merciless work system?<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n


\nThe minimum wage and the dilemma of implementation <\/b><\/h1>\n

At a time when a number of workplaces are witnessing a wave of protests for the application of the minimum wage, the official page of the Ministry of Labour published a <\/span>statement <\/span><\/a>on the launch of an inspection campaign led by Minister of Labour Mohamed Gebran in the industrial zone of 10th of Ramadan, to monitor establishments’ compliance with the law, including the application of the minimum wage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ministry<\/span> granted<\/span><\/a> 949 establishments a grace period to apply the law and regularise their situation before any penalties are imposed. <\/span>According to<\/span><\/a> Sayed Sharkawy, director general of the Inspection Department at the Ministry of Labour, the ministry grants a grace period to correct the situation, but if the violation continues, reports are filed and referred to the Public Prosecution, with penalties doubling in the event of repetition, and the fine may reach between EGP 20,000 and EGP 100,000, depending on the number of affected workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, labour researcher Hassan El-Barbary believes that the recent labour protests, including those relating to the application of the minimum wage, are linked to three main factors. First, the issuance of the minimum wage decision of EGP 7,000 last February and its adoption as a transitional stage from Labour Law No. 12 of 2003 to Law No. 14 of 2025, without the Ministry of Labour taking any inspection measures to ensure implementation since that date, which led to a major expansion of the protests that could have been avoided had actual application begun last March.<\/span><\/p>\n

El-Barbary adds, speaking to Zawia3, that in addition to the rise in the prices of basic goods between 2024 and 2025, by between 10% and 13.5%, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS), which increased the economic pressure on workers whose wages range between EGP 3,500 and EGP 5,500, far from the legal minimum, which contributed to the escalation of the protests, there is also the existence of two parallel wage systems in some state-owned companies, such as electricity, gas and water, one linked to the civil service and the other to the Labour Law, which led to clear discrimination between workers in the same utility, who are demanding the application of a unified wage system that guarantees equality and non-discrimination, with the bonuses made permanent and the minimum wage applied to everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

The labour researcher points out that the failure of the Ministry of Labour lies in the absence of executive regulations for the new law so far, which has weakened its ability to impose compliance on the owners of establishments. He adds that relying on ministerial decisions instead of clear regulations has made application dependent on the minister’s discretion, which has led to extreme slowness in issuing and implementing decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

El-Barbary stresses that the Ministry of Labour has not taken real measures to resolve collective disputes under the new law, including conciliation, mediation and arbitration, from the application of the law last September until the present time. He points out that the failure of the ministry and the failure of the new law in practical application were among the main reasons behind the continuation and expansion of labour protests, pointing to the urgent need to issue effective executive regulations that guarantee workers’ rights and include mechanisms for applying the minimum wage in a real and unified way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>Civil Service Law<\/span><\/a> No. 81 of 2016 applies to employees of ministries, government departments, local administration units, public authorities to which the provisions of the law apply, and bodies with their own budgets, with the exception of some bodies with special cadres such as teachers, universities, political or judicial bodies, the armed forces and the police, as these categories are subject to their own laws and regulations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this context, the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services and the Committee for the Defence of Trade Union Freedoms and Labour Rights<\/span> praised<\/span><\/a> the inspection work undertaken by the Ministry of Labour at private-sector establishments for compliance with the application of the legally prescribed minimum wage, stressing the need for this work to continue and to be carried out with the necessary seriousness and transparency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two bodies explained, in a<\/span> joint statement<\/span><\/a>, that 2025 saw limited progress in the application of the minimum wage under the text of Article 104 of Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, while Article (105) set out the obligation of the inspection bodies to carry out periodic monitoring to ensure application. The two bodies demanded the continuity and regularity of inspection committees without waiting for labour protests to occur or complaints to be filed, while guaranteeing the protection of workers who file complaints and the confidentiality of their data on request.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there a shortcoming in the law?<\/b><\/h1>\n

For his part, Kamal Abbas, general coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services, believes that the new Labour Law has not failed with regard to the minimum wage, pointing out that the texts of the law are clear and contain no exceptions, but the problem lies in implementation on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abbas explains, speaking to Zawia3, that employers often focus only on profit, ignoring workers’ basic rights, including wages, the safety of the work environment, health care and safe means of transport. He points out that the announced minimum wage is often not actually reflected in workers’ salaries, as many are paid amounts of less than EGP 4,000 despite their long years of service, stressing that the current inspection measures are more media “propaganda” than a regular process for applying the law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abbas points out that labour inspectors have judicial arrest powers to record violations and fine employers in accordance with the law, but the process does not take place on a daily and regular basis, especially in the absence of active independent unions in the private sector, which limits workers’ ability to claim their rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

The general coordinator also touched on the incident at the “My<\/span> Linen<\/span><\/a> Group” company, which saw the death of an infant girl because of the closure of a nursery inside the company, stressing that this incident exposed the company’s illegal practices in calculating wages and workers’ rights, despite the existence of an independent union.<\/span><\/p>\n

The general coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services stresses that the solution requires strengthening the role of independent unions, ensuring periodic monitoring by the Ministry of Labour, and making sure that the minimum wage is applied in a real and transparent way, without settling for superficial inspection campaigns or visits by the Minister of Labour to large establishments.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same context, labour lawyer Yasser Saad believes that the crisis of applying the minimum wage in Egypt lies in the weakness of the prescribed penalties and their inability to force employers to comply, whether in the old law or in the new law currently in force.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saad adds, speaking to Zawia3, that most establishments ignore the application of the minimum wage, and when workers resort to filing reports or bringing lawsuits, they are often subjected to “arbitrary measures”, including arbitrary dismissal, which pushes them into silence out of fear for their livelihood. He points out that the fines stipulated in the Labour Law are insufficient, which prompted international organisations, such as the International Labour Organization, to recommend imposing harsher economic penalties, including the withdrawal of the licence or the removal of the establishment from the commercial register in the event of non-compliance with the law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saad stresses that the official reports filed by labour inspectors are considered important evidence for workers when bringing lawsuits, but they do not guarantee their job stability or the protection of their income, which leaves them under permanent threat when they claim their rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the role of the Ministry of Labour, the lawyer stresses that the available settlement mechanisms do not force employers to accept workers’ demands, except in the case of collective bargaining, which can result in a tripartite contract between workers, employers and the Ministry of Labour, applied for three years and guaranteeing the agreed rights and obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent events, from the journalists’ protests to the actions of workers at the sugar and water companies, confirm the urgent need to activate law enforcement mechanisms in a real way, strengthen the role of independent unions and ensure continuous monitoring by the Ministry of Labour, so as to guarantee the minimum wage as a legal right, instead of it remaining mere texts written on paper.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 100 days after the application of the new Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, thousands of workers in Egypt are still paid wages below the minimum of EGP 7,000, despite the government’s promises and inspection campaigns, while the country saw 42 labour protests in only three months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[390],"tags":[],"kateb":[728],"class_list":["post-17001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","kateb-shimaa-hamdy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/labour-law-wages-2025.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17001"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24030,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17001\/revisions\/24030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17001"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=17001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}