Workers from the Land Improvement Authority in Beheira, a group of physically-challenged individuals and workers from the Nubaria Company for Agricultural Engineering continued their sit-ins in front of the People’s Assembly, protesting low salaries, insufficient housing for the physically challenged and the closing of the Nubaria Company and dismissal of its workers.
Ahmed el-Khawaga, coordinator of the protest by the Land Improvement Authority workers, said that two complaints had been submitted to Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud against Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza and Minister of Manpower and Labor Aisha Abdel Hady. The complaints cite the refusal of the two ministers to attend People’s Assembly discussions on the workers’ grievances and to answer statements by various opposition andindependent representatives articulating the workers’ demands.
Likewise, a group of physically challenged individuals continued their sit-in for the 58th consecutive day, protesting the fact that no housing units have been provided for them in their governorates of origin, as well as the government’s failure to implement a legally mandated quota that reserves five percent of civil service jobs for the disabled. Others are also demanding that the Cairo governor rescind a recent decision not to issue vending kiosk licenses to those with physical disabilities.
Ali Abul Maged, coordinator of the disabled persons’ sit-in, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that his group will file a complaint with the attorney general against Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif over his violation of the Constitution which protects the rights of the physically challenged. He added that ministers have been ignoring their sit-in that has lasted nearly two months.
In other news, workers of the Nubaria Company for Agricultural Engineering were joined by their family members in a four-day-old sit-in, protesting the attorney general’s failure to appoint a negotiator for the company which had been closed for over two years, and the withholding of their salaries for the last 25 months. The workers are demanding that the company be reopened and that its employees be returned to work.
The Group of 45 of the State Litigation Authority, organized a protest in front of parliament to demand the implementation of judicial rulings obligating the authority to employ them.
The group name represents the fact that they have raised forty claims for personal compensation against Sadaqi Khalwasy, president of the State Litigation Authority, for the harm caused to them due to his refusal to implement the legal rulings.
Elsewhere, workers from the Amonsito textile company hinted they may renew their sit-in before of the Egyptian parliament due to officials "stalling" the implementation their agreement. The workers had ended their 21-day sit-in last month after an agreement was reached with the Ministry of Labor to compensate former company employees with early-retirement packages.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
