Workers from the Ezz el-Dekheila Steel Company threatened to organize a strike on Thursday to coincide with a meeting of the company's general assembly, where they will decide on distribution of profits for the year 2009. The protest has several aims, the workers said, the most important of which is to restore the old system of profit sharing whereby profits are distributed every three months. Under the current system profits are shared once per year. A statement by the workers said the social bonus had been reduced to three percent per year and the annual raise to eight percent. The annual production bonus, the statement said, has decreased by LE500 since 1996. The company did however increase allowances by 100 percent, but workers describe the increase as "deceptive," since the allowances were originally too low. Alaa Abul Kheir, the company's managing director, said the situation is nothing to be alarmed about and the general assembly will have the final say on profit distribution. He said the assembly will take a decision that serves the interests of the company, its workers and its shareholders. Mohamed Sabry, a worker at Ezz el-Dekheila, said the company had for the last five years paid out annual profit shares intermittently, and then in 2009 completely withheld their quarterly profit shares. According to Sabry, such irregularities have sharply reduced their incomes. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
