Workers of Universal Group for home appliances started a new strike protesting the administration non-adherence to the agreement signed by representatives of the administration last October with representatives from the workers and the union of workers in metal and engineering industries. The agreement was sponsored by the ministry of manpower to end a 20-day strike after months of blocking the workers’ wages. October’s agreement had provided September salaries will be disbursed to all workers in 2 instalments: the first on 20 November and the second on 25 December. In addition, the administration committed to disburse the complete salary every month before the tenth day of the next month, starting from October.

One of the workers’ leaders said the administration did not disburse October salaries to the manual labor workers so far, while September salaries also were blocked for the white-collar workers. Moreover, the monthly bonus was cut down from 700 EGP to 100 EGP. While the agreement provided a 6-month monthly bonus, which was blocked between April and September, to be disbursed in monthly instalments along with every new month bonus. After the administration broke the agreement, the workers insist on disbursing the delayed sum immediately along with the sum of the work nature allowance (100 to 120 EGP), which has been blocked for 3 years.

The story started when over 3 thousand workers struck against blocking and cutting down their wages, and the police failed to break the strike despite arresting 3 of the workers’ leaders, which obliged the administration to bargain with the workers.