The Agricultural Bank has fired hundreds of its employees over the past two years after the management issued a new human resources regulation that relaxed the dismissal terms.
An employee said she was dismissed in February 2021 based on a decision to terminate her contract, explaining, “Despite the management’s claim that I made a grave mistake, no pre-dismissal procedures were issued against me, and no one investigated me.” While she resorted to the labour court to obtain compensation, the bank demanded that she repay a loan she had received before being dismissed from work and cut off her salary. Another employee who had been an inspector at the bank since 1997 said he was fired in 2021 while on sick leave. “The bank’s management attributes all the dismissals to unspecified alleged grave mistakes,” said human rights lawyer Ashraf El-Sherbiny. He added that if the management’s decisions were arbitrary, the dismissed employees would be awarded compensation if proven.
