Yesterday, the management of the company of Universal Home Appliances submitted a report to the Labour Bureau of the Sixth of October City as a preliminary step to refer them to the Labour Court to take the procedures of dismissing the members of the administrative board of the Union and the unionist representatives of workers in the Company. The Company also filed a report against them, administrative no. 2453 for 2022, at the Second Police Station of the Sixth of October City. The Union was established at the end of April. These workers are:
1) Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Al-Mossalamy – President of the Administrative Board of the Union
2) Abdullah Youssry Mohamed
3) Sayed Abou El-Seoud Ahmed Mahmoud – Vice-President of the Administrative Board of the Union
4) Essam Abdel-Attie Abdel-Moteleb Ali – General Secretary of the Union
5) Ashraf Mohamed Ali Mohamed Ali – Assistant Secretary General
6) Mahmoud Ahmed Mahmoud Haridi – Assistant Treasurer
7) Ahmed Mostafa Ahmed Mohamed – Member of the Administrative Board of the Union
8) Saad Talal Abdel-Fattah Al-Askari – Member of the Administrative Board of the Union
9) Al-Sayed Ahmed Ahmed Mohamed Khalaf – Member of the Administrative Board of the Union
10) Ahmed Abou El-Fotouh Ahmed Badawi - Member of the Administrative Board of the Union
11) Ashraf Gameel Mohamadi
12) Emad Kamal
13) Ayman Hashem Hashem
14) Mohamed Kamal Rashed
15) Mohamed Ali Mahmoud
16) Mohamed Magdy Ahmed
17) Hassan Salem Gaber
18) Mohamed Ibrahim Salem
19) Sayed Mohamed Youssef
20) Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Sayed
Members of the Administrative Board of the Union held a meeting yesterday with the management to discuss many things; primarily among them the payment of delayed financial dues and wages of workers according to what was agreed upon in the Collective Agreement signed last October which the management of the Company repeatedly tried to repudiate. The meeting was not successful because the management insisted on not paying monthly wages in one payment but rather in two or three installments. It is worth mentioning that delayed payments for workers are still suspended since last September, in addition to tens of months of hazard pay and incentives that are not paid until now.
The meeting ended with the refusal of the Union, as a representative of workers, to the proposal to pay the wage of the month of April in two installments. Then, workers were surprised that the Company announced an administrative publication that the wage of April would be paid in two installments: the first installment on the 19th of May and the second one on the 31st of May. Workers completely refused this, and declared their insistence of receiving their full wage and submitted a collective complaint at the Labour Bureau.
Today, Wednesday the 11th of May, more than 150 workers went to the Labour Bureau of October to file individual complaints so that they receive their dues. There, members of the Union were surprised that the management of the Company filed a report against them accusing them of inciting workers to go on strike and demanding their referral to court as a preliminary step for firing them.
It is worth mentioning that the management of the company of Universal Home Appliances has repeatedly delayed the payment of the financial dues for workers, who amount to approximately 3500 workers. This led workers to launch several strike actions in the preceding years until a collective labour agreement was signed under the patronage of the Ministry of Manpower and the Federation of Unions of Workers in Engineering, Metal and Electric Industries last October. Most important terms of that agreement were:
The Company violated that agreement leading worker Assem Afifi to end his life in February because he could not fulfill the needs of his family. Workers became angry after that horrible incident, and the management reiterated its promises to resolve the crisis but it didn’t.
Violations committed by the management of Universal against its workers are no longer an isolated case, but a recurrent phenomenon in many companies in the private sector because of the evident bias of state policies to businessmen at the legislative and executive levels. It is worth mentioning that the Managing Director and the Executive Manger of the company of Universal Home Appliances is Mr. Ahmed Youssry Qotb, member of the Senate and leader of the Party of the Future of the Homeland (Mostakbal Watan) in Giza. He should have respected the integrity of his legislative position and the duty to defend the rights of citizens rather than violating or circumventing them.
That arrogance on the part of the management of the company of Universal towards workers who demand their legal rights comes amid an escalating economic crisis that workers bear the most heavy burdens thereof.
#SupportUniversalWorkers
CTUWS
11 May 2022
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