CAIRO: Around 200 employees from the social affairs offices - which report to their respective governorates - demonstrated Sunday in front of Mogamaa El-Tahrir, to campaign for both a rise in pay and transferal to the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The employees, who held their first demonstration last Thursday, chanted slogans such as "How will we live when we can't buy bread? , "Oh minister, say the truth are we 'ministry' or are we 'governorate'? and "Ya Moselhi look - we are making demands out in the open. Demonstrators also referred to their role in "serving millions while suffering from the increase in prices. However, unlike Thursday's demonstration, yesterday's lacked banners and posters. According to the employees, the officials at the Mogamaa confiscated their posters and banners, locked them up and warned their colleague who had the key not to come into work. Mahmoud El-Fakahany, the ministry representative in the Mogamaa, refused a request by Daily News Egypt on this issue. Intimidation has prevented many employees from turning up at the demonstration, said one protestor. "Many of my colleagues were afraid to demonstrate lest they lose their jobs. Many wanted to come here from other governorates, but were forbidden by officials. Sanaa Mamdouh told Daily News Egypt. There are over 10,000 employees in Giza alone, and 77,000 nationally."Our wages are very low, the top wage is usually no more than LE 350, Reda Abdullah, a social affairs employee, told Daily News Egypt. "It barely lasts a week, let alone one month. We had to go and beg Mohamed Aboul Einin, a member of parliament, to give us money in Ramadan. Said Mursi, another employee, told Daily News Egypt how he has been engaged for two years, but cannot afford to get married. "I was appointed four years ago. Back then my incentives were LE 24. Now they are LE 26. It's hard to believe that they have only gone up by LE 2 in four years. All workers receive a basic wage. However, should they attend work more than 22 days in one month, they receive what is termed an incentive payment. "The employees within the ministry itself take 200 percent incentives, in addition to a salary that is over LE 1,000, said Ghali Mahrous Girgis. "They don't even have to show up to work to pick up the extra money. "You have to remember that much of our work is spent outside the office, we have to investigate retirement claims and accident claims and visit people in their homes. And the cost of all this traveling comes out of our own pocket; we don't receive any travel expenses. The demonstrations come on the heels of the success of their colleagues in the Real Estate Tax department. The tax workers, after over a week protesting before the cabinet office in early December 2007, achieved their transferal to the Finance Ministry, as well as pay rises in both their basic wages and their incentives. "This is exactly what we want, said Ali Mahdi, another employee. "We want our position to be clarified. Do we belong to the governorates or the ministry? We sent a letter outlining our demands to Ali Moselhi, minister of social solidarity. But he said that we are 'banging our heads against a brick wall'. We will continue demonstrating here till Thursday, and then we will go to the ministry.
