The Egyptian government signed an agreement on Wednesday with workers in the spinning and weaving industry to increase incentives, one day before a planned national strike on Thursday. The agreement which includes increasing incentives for workers retroactively and raising meal reimbursements to LE210, was signed by Ali al-Selmy, deputy prime minister for political affairs, Ahmed al-Borai, minister of manpower and immigration, as well as Abdel Fatah Ibrahim, head of the General Union for Spinning and Textile Workers. The government estimates the number of workers in the state spinning and weaving industry who will benefit from this agreement to be around 70,000 from 26 different factories across Egypt. Mamdouh Othman, head of legal affairs for the Holding Company for Spinning and Weaving, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the government and textile companies will pay for the increase. “This step prevented protests and gatherings planned on Thursday by textile workers across the country,” he added. He also stressed that textile factories that were privatized vowed to implement the increase after studying it, with the aim of harmonizing working conditions in the private and public sectors. Translated from the Arabic Edition
