CAIRO: Amonsito workers have called off a sit-in after a breakthrough in negotiations on redundancy packages. According to union committee head Khaled El-Shishawy, officials from Bank Misr — which brought Amonsito under its administration when its owner Adel Agha fled in 2007 leaving it ridden with debts — agreed to increase to LE 65 million the lump sum which will be apportioned to workers' redundancy pay. In March, workers had been promised LE 106 million, subsequently reduced to LE 50 million in May when a two-week sit-in workers had been staging outside parliament was forcibly dispersed by security bodies. Workers resumed a sit-in last Monday at the headquarters of the Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions (EFTU) after subsequent pay promises of LE 86 million were not upheld. El-Shishawy told Daily News Egypt that a proposal that LE 20 million worth of raw materials in factory storerooms be sold and added to the LE 65 million promised to them is under review by the Public Funds Prosecution office. A further meeting between Amonsito workers and EFTU president Hussein Megawer is scheduled for Sunday.
