Last week, dozens of workers in the National Media Authority sectors were summoned for administrative investigation after protesting in front of the Maspero building for more than a month.

Khaled Al-Sobky, head of the trade union committee in the economic sector at the National Media Authority, explained that the investigations included 37 employees, adding that they were also issued with penalties.

The workers faced a number of charges that included disrupting work and social peace, and demonstrating. Al-Sobky also said that one of the employees in the security sector was transferred by an arbitrary administrative decision and without investigation from her original workplace in Maspero to another office in Giza. Al-Sobky himself was referred for investigation and summoned to the General Union of Egyptian Workers, due to his trade union status as head of the trade union committee for workers in the economic sector in the National Media Authority. “The previous wave of investigations was followed by another wave without mentioning the reason for the investigation,” one of the employees who received a summons for investigation said. “Department managers have received instructions to monitor and document the attendance of workers in their offices” in order to make sure that nobody is protesting.

Thousands of Maspero employees began demonstrating in January against their working conditions and low wages, and to demand their financial dues which have been overdue since 2017. They are also demanding that the authority’s head, Hussein Zain, stand down.