Latest news with #LE500
Egypt Independent
08-07-2025
- Business
- Egypt Independent
CBE decides to raise daily cash withdrawal limit from banks to LE500,000
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced an increase in the daily limit for cash withdrawals from bank branches in local currency to LE500,000, up from the previous limit of LE250,000. The decision is temporary in light of current circumstances. In a statement issued on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, the CBE said the step aims to support the needs of individuals and businesses and ease the burden on clients amid recent technical challenges caused by disruptions in telecommunications services. The Bank said this measure will remain in effect until telecom services are fully restored to normal. The CBE affirmed its full commitment to continued monitoring of the situation and taking all necessary measures to ensure the stability of the banking sector and facilitate services for citizens.
Mada
13-03-2025
- Business
- Mada
State water bill collectors in Qalyubiya suspend protest after company promises to meet demands
In the face of the Qalyubiya Drinking Water and Sanitation Company's push in recent months to move workers to commission-based contracts, bill collectors staged a one-day protest on Tuesday. In addition to their demand to halt pressure to change to a casualized labor contract, workers at the Qanater protest demanded the reinstatement of their health insurance cards, which the company suspended a year ago, as well as the enforcement of the government-mandated minimum wage amid rising living costs and the demanding nature of their job. Tuesday's protests took place across water stations affiliated with the state's Holding Company for Drinking Water and Wastewater in Banha, Khusus, Shubra al-Kheima, Qanater al-Khairiya and Khanka. Workers suspended the protest on Wednesday, one day in, after company management made promises to address their concerns. The demonstrations ended after workers received a phone call from someone working at a security agency. 'Someone from the National Security Agency — we don't know who — called us and said they scheduled a meeting for us with the company chair for [Wednesday] to resolve the issue,' one worker told Mada Masr. On Wednesday morning, workers' representatives met with company chair Mostafa Megahed, who promised to grant them a financial bonus by Sunday at the latest, according to Mohamed Dawoud, a spokesperson for the bill collectors who spoke to Mada Masr. Dawoud, who attended the Wednesday meeting, said Megahed agreed that the company branches would stop pressuring workers to sign new 'agency contracts' to replace their current ones. Megahed also pledged to review their demand for permanent contracts and implement the minimum wage starting April. Currently, many bill collectors work under temporary contracts – defined by the labor law as work that is by its nature part of the employer's business, but for a period of less than one year — that are supposed to pay a fixed salary of LE500 and then a 1.5 percent commission of all bills they collect. In reality, however, 'the company only pays the commission — if you collect, you get paid; if you don't, there's no salary,' the worker said. And even if workers were to receive the fixed component of their salary, it would still fall far below the legally mandated public sector minimum wage of LE6,000. 'The highest possible salary is LE3,300, and only a few even get that. Where is the minimum wage?' asked a worker from the Qaha water company. Another protester in Khanka, employed for six years, told Mada Masr that their monthly income never exceeded LE2,500, as it is entirely dependent on their collection rate. Rather than attempt to remedy the pay gap between the legally mandated minimum wage and workers' actual pay, the company has tried to pressure its collectors to accept 'agency contracts,' which would normalize the status quo of commission-based pay without a fixed wage and strip temporary-contracted workers of their right to permanent contracts, which they are entitled to after six years of continuous part-time employment. Agency contracts would reclassify workers as commission-based workers rather than company employees, effectively stripping them of labor rights such as health and social insurance. Since June, the company has repeatedly threatened workers with termination if they refused to switch to agency contracts, a worker from Qanater said. By September, it ramped up the pressure by hiring new collectors under the agency system while restricting non-compliant workers to a single collection ledger — compared to up to four given to agency-contracted collectors. This significantly reduced their earnings as it cut into their ability to collect commissions. According to the worker, who has worked with the company on a temporary contract for six years, water collectors' wages have dropped to an average of LE2,000 since last September — down from between LE3,000 and LE4,000 — after they refused to sign the company's new agency contracts. The agency contracts would also allow the company to avoid granting temporary workers permanent contracts after a certain amount of time, which they are obliged to do by law but have refused to grant in many instances. The Khanka worker told Mada Masr that one of the reasons workers rejected the 'agency contract' is that it would nullify their seniority under their current one. 'That means all my years of work will be erased, and I'd have to start from scratch,' they said. Water bill collectors in Qanater have attempted to push back against the company's evasion of handing out permanent contracts, having filed a complaint with the Labor Ministry Directorate in Toukh in June. However, the office refused to register their complaint, informing them that their contracts were effectively permanent since they renewed automatically, and that complaints could only be filed in cases of termination, according to the Qanater worker. Several workers have filed lawsuits demanding permanent contracts, the Qaha company worker said, adding that their own case has been postponed multiple times, with a verdict expected on March 25. A lawyer representing Qalyubiya's water company workers told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity that most employees — whether under permanent contracts and denied their bonuses or temporary commission-based workers — have taken legal action against the company. Temporary workers, the lawyer argued, should also be entitled to bonuses and promotions after years of service. Some workers have already secured final court rulings ordering the company to pay their dues, but 'the company refuses to enforce them, including final rulings from the Court of Cassation.' The Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities Ministry and the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater have recorded the names of workers involved in these lawsuits, the lawyer said. Officials assured the lawyer that the issue would be resolved 'after Eid al-Adha,' which is in June. The lawyer has also filed cases against the company over its failure to implement the minimum wage, with proceedings still ongoing, according to them. Water bill collection is a core function of the water company, making it impermissible to employ collectors under temporary contracts with wages below the legal minimum, said Mohab Aboud, coordinator of the alliance of labor secretariats in parties and unions. Speaking to Mada Masr after a wave of protests broke out in April last year, he noted that demonstrations by water collectors and meter readers had persisted for several months across multiple governorates, including Qalyubiya, Giza, Minya and Assiut. The largest protest took place in Aswan, where workers staged a ten-day sit-in. In recent years the government has attempted to cut back on what it calls a 'bloated' civil service workforce. In 2015, the president issued a contentious civil service law that served to halt bonuses, slow wage increases and limit the promotions of countless civil servants, while granting sweeping powers to state-appointed company administrators. Numerous protests were staged against the civil service law in 2015. Civil servants argued President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi didn't confer with them or their unions before it was introduced. In the end, the newly elected 2015 Parliament chose not to ratify the presidential decree, making it the only law out of 342 issued before the Parliament convened that the legislative body rejected. Subsequent legislative efforts to thin out the expansive civil service force have seen Parliament grant the state the right to sack civil servants put on terrorism lists even if they are yet to be investigated on suspicion of terrorism, as well as workers deemed to have 'violated professional duties' in ways that harm 'economic interest or national production' and if there is 'serious evidence' that an employee has 'undermined national security and stability.'
