Agriculture Ministry employees march for five years’ worth of withheld salaries

Hundreds of women employees of the Agriculture Ministry from governorates across Egypt staged a march in Giza on Monday, demanding the ministry pay out salaries that have been suspended for the past five years, one of the protestors told Mada Masr. The women have worked for years — in some cases decades — on temporary contracts for nominal wages. They have previously taken legal action for better working conditions, securing court rulings in 2021 that stipulated they be granted permanent appointment. But since then, the ministry has refused to pay their salaries under various pretexts, including pending paperwork and delays in receiving funds allocated by the Finance Ministry, several protesters told Mada Masr. The employees gathered outside the Agriculture Ministry’s Dokki headquarters on Monday morning. The first protestor, who had traveled all the way to Cairo from Minya to take part in the demonstration, said that police officers surrounded the group and detained the driver who had transported the Minya employees. As more women joined the protest, security officers insisted they disperse. Instead, the protestors began their march to the Central Administration for Seed Testing and Certification, around 2.5 km from the ministry’s headquarters. The Minya employee, who has worked in the seed testing department since 1996 for a monthly salary of just LE90, said she reached and entered the central administration’s offices on Monday to ask why a court ruling in her favor is yet to be implemented. The ruling ordered that she receive her salary “with all its components and supplements from the date she assumed her post.” Officials told her that a joint committee from the finance and agriculture ministries is set to meet in September to discuss implementing all outstanding court rulings and disbursing the unpaid salaries. The response angered protestors, who saw it as an attempt at stalling action. They then began a return march back toward the ministry headquarters, the Minya employee said. But security forces, backed by women police officers, blocked their route toward the Dokki bridge and prevented them from returning to the ministry. This is the second time for the Agriculture Ministry employees to stage a protest, with their first demonstration held on June 23 to press for the same demands. The June protest came to an end after security officers promised to present the demonstrators’ grievances to the prime minister, one of the participants told Mada Masr at the time. In February, MP Ahmed al-Sengedy submitted a briefing request addressed to both the agriculture and finance ministers over what he described as “grave administrative injustice” faced by employees in several Agriculture Ministry departments. He argued that, despite carrying out permanent, ongoing work across the ministry’s various sectors in positions that clearly met the criteria for permanent employment, the employees continued to be treated as temporary workers. He called for the authorities responsible for delaying the implementation of the court rulings to be identified and for the relevant agencies to provide a clear timeline for enforcing the rulings and paying all outstanding entitlements retroactively. The post Agriculture Ministry employees march for five years’ worth of withheld salaries first appeared on Mada Masr .