INVESTMENT Minister Mahmoud Mohieddin said Egyptian labour protests were focused on wages and contract demands at specific firms and did not pose a broader risk to local or foreign investment. Low wages, surging prices and privatisation have been the major complaints in a rising number of industrial disputes involving public and private sector employees in both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. "It is not really part of a trend. Workers have their own demands and when some sort of solution for employer and worker is reached these protests do not develop further," Mohieddin told a news conference late on Tuesday. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif yesterday instructed the review of the workers' conditions of in the companies facing financial crises. "The prime minister ushered that concerted efforts should be directed to securing the rights of the workers in these companies," Cabinet Spokesman Magdi Radi said after Nazif held a meeting with ministers of investment, manpower and communications. The Premier also urged ministers to take the measures to ensure the plots of land and the shares owned by the State would not be harmed in case of bankruptcy or sale of these companies. Over the past months, nurses, textile workers and taxi drivers have held protests and strikes in different provinces over pay and what they said were breached agreements. Last week, a coalition of several labour groups, including factory workers and office employees, staged a joint protest demanding a higher national minimum wage in a move some analysts said could signal broader coordination ��" potentially denting Egypt's image as an investment friendly country. "This is not an issue of concern for foreign or local investors in Egypt," Mohieddin said, adding that grievances were confined to specific issues such as wages or the negative effects of privatisation on specific companies and factories. He was quoted by Reuters as saying some opposition politicians were seeking to capitalise on labour issues ahead of a parliament election this year and a presidential vote in 2011. Most protests have involved workers at individual companies or factories, making it easier for the Government to contain them. But analysts point to signs of coordinated strikes that may dampen investor interest in the sale of Government assets. The minister brushed off any discontent, saying it was largely due to the "management of some companies". Egypt is host to 60,000 registered firms, 25 per cent of which are foreign and include Arab investors.
