Between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2011, there were 335 labor protests in Egypt, said a report issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower on Tuesday.
The report said that during the same period, the ministry received 4,460 individual and group complaints from workers.
The report went on to say that ministry helped settle 94 group disputes through collective negotiations and achieve reconciliation between workers and management. It also claimed to have taken the necessary legal action in a number of other conflicts which were not specifically described.
According to the report, settlements reached by the ministry led to improved working conditions, in addition to financial benefits for workers.
It added that during this period, 135 sit-ins were organized at work places in the public sector following official working hours while 123 sit-ins were organized in the private sector nationwide.
“All of these cases were settled and the workers demands were affably achieved after business owners responded to the ministry’s intervention, either through direct negotiations or through mediation with the concerned parties," according to the report.
Labor protests have drastically increased since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011. Observers say this escalation was to be expected following decades of oppression under Mubarak's rule.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
