Alexandria’s Amreya shuts factory to striking workers

Workers sought intervention from authorities on Sunday after management at Misr al-Amreya Spinning and Weaving Company in Alexandria decided to suspend operations at the factory indefinitely, according to four workers who spoke to Mada Masr.

The management’s statement said the shutdown was to allow for routine maintenance, inventory and reviews. But the workers said they view the move as punishment for their ongoing strike against under-payment.

How did the strike begin?

Hundreds of workers at the company, which is owned by Banque Misr, began a strike in late July, to protest the miscalculation of a “special allowance” bonus to which they are entitled.

The workers told Mada Masr at the time that the company is calculating their bonuses as a percentage of their baseline wages, rather than as a percentage of their insured wages — effectively reducing the bonus value.

The base wage is around a third of the value of the insured wage, as per a worker’s payslip that Mada Masr reviewed last month.

A new social insurance law ratified in July obliges public sector companies to pay a “special allowance” bonus and to calculate it at the rate of 12 percent of the insured wage. Worker representatives speaking to Mada Masr last week said that the company owner has said Amreya is a private company exempt from the requirement, but the head of the company’s workers union committee, Mohamed al-Sawy, told Mada Masr that the company committed to an agreement five years ago that it would keep worker privileges at Amreya consistent with those in the public sector.

Throughout the strike, management and the company’s union committee tried to persuade workers to return to their jobs while their demands were being considered. The workers refused, and some received implicit threats, their representatives told Mada Masr. One quoted his manager as telling him, “What’s coming is not going to be good.”

Management issued a notice on Thursday saying it was “continuously examining and studying the legitimate rights of workers” in order to present their findings to the relevant authorities. The notice added that these rights “are safeguarded through unity.”

The striking workers rejected what came in the notice, as it did not specify any clear action or timeline for implementing their demands, according to the workers.

Management shuts company premises to workers

It was the following day that the Alexandria company’s management issued a notice suspending work, restricting attendance to “workers who are called in to manage the extensive inventorying operations,” while “salaries and wages stipulated by law will continue to be paid on their scheduled dates.”

Copy of Misr al-Amreya Spinning and Weaving Company management’s Friday notice.

On Saturday morning, employees tried to reach work by public transportation after the company withheld the buses that normally transport them to work from different areas, according to the workers. But police, deployed heavily at the railway crossing leading to the gate, blocked them from reaching the factory.

Fearing wage deductions over the closure, some workers went to the police station to file incident reports and lodged complaints with the labor office over their demands and the closure decision. Others filed similar complaints on Sunday.

The four company workers who spoke to Mada Masr said they were among those filing complaints with their local labor directorate on Sunday over management’s indefinite suspension of operations at the factory.

Amreya previously closed its factory for a month in 2015 after workers went on strike to demand the payment of incentives and bonuses in line with those granted at other companies in the spinning and weaving sector.

Workers at Amreya also staged a strike in February over wage reductions, which took the form of higher taxes and increased social insurance deductions . In April, they went on strike again, demanding higher wages, an increase in production bonuses and higher hazard pay.

The post Alexandria’s Amreya shuts factory to striking workers first appeared on Mada Masr .