Nile Linen workers suspend strike to protest bonus cuts pending negotiations

After beginning a strike to protest a reduction in their bonuses on Wednesday, workers at the Nile Linen Group textile company, which is based in the Alexandria Free Investment Zone, called off the action on Sunday and are due to enter into negotiations with the management next week. 

The strike was sparked by a decision to cut 50 percent of their Eid bonuses, according to a member of the company’s trade union committee, who said that the cuts would make things worse for workers who already have to deal with high rates of inflation pushing up the price of basic commodities nationwide.

After securing a commitment from management to begin negotiations on a settlement next week and assurance that none of those who went on strike would face punishment, workers called off the strike on Sunday.  

The committee member, who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, explained that workers first gathered in the company’s headquarters on Wednesday morning to protest the Eid bonus cut, after which one of the company’s department heads threatened retaliation, saying that penalties and pay cuts would be imposed. Workers began a full strike in response to the threats, said the committee member.

The workers demanded on Wednesday to meet with the company’s manager, Ashraf Sayed, but Sayed left headquarters soon after his arrival and avoided a meeting.

“The strike demands include raising the Eid bonus to LE2,000,” the committee member said, adding that workers have received an LE1,000 bonus regularly since 2016 on the occasions of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and that the value has never been increased.

But this year, the company decided to reduce the bonus by 50 percent to LE500, “at a time when we are struggling with the current wave of high prices,” the committee member said.

Striking workers also demanded the reinstatement of a special LE500 monthly bonus to compensate for price increases. The company began disbursing the sum to workers in the middle of each month in 2018, but the extra compensatory payment was withdrawn last year, in return for a wider restructure of wages “in light of our strike in July,” the source said.

Nile Linen workers went on strike in July 2021 to protest a proposed cut to the company's LE2,100 minimum wage, a proposal floated by Nile Linen management days after the government set the first-ever private sector minimum wage at LE2,400.That strike ended with an agreement that saw the company raise its minimum wage to LE2,800 and adjust the higher wage brackets starting this year, the committee member explained.

This agreement, however, “came before the current wave of high prices, which has eroded the value of any wage increases. That’s why there’s a need to bring back the price increase bonus,” the source added.

Workers are also demanding that they be given health insurance, a point that was agreed upon at the conclusion of the July strike, but which is yet to see the light. 

The workers also demand that company management disclose the company’s financial statements for 2021. Workers are entitled to 10 percent of the company profits which are usually payable in March.

Nile Linen Group, founded in 1996, provides 70 percent of Egypt’s home furnishing exports, according to its official website.