Over 100 B Laban workers face forced transfer or termination, lawyer says

More than 100 workers for the Alexandria branches of B Laban, a multi-national dessert franchise with factories and shops across the country, say they are being forced by the company to either transfer outside the governorate or lose their jobs, their lawyer Sherif Yehia told Mada Masr. Workers in other governorates have reported a similar wave of decisions from branch managers.

The incident has brought B Laban back into the media limelight after its sudden closure on the grounds of putative health and food safety violations, in a decision that the government quickly reversed which made headlines earlier this year. 

The company informed the workers that they would be fired if they did not comply with the transfer decisions immediately, Yehia said on Saturday.

The decisions, which the lawyer described as arbitrary, were issued without prior notice, leaving the workers unable to organize their living arrangements with their families. While the company said it would grant workers benefits in exchange for moving to another governorate, “this has not yet happened," he added. 

The same group of workers have filed complaints at local Labor Ministry directorates in Agami-Hanofil and Smouha, objecting to the company's decision to force them to transfer to branches outside the governorate. Yehia also said he is preparing to file lawsuits in the coming days if solutions are not reached for workers who do not wish to transfer to the company's branches in Cairo.

Responding to circulating claims that over 1,000 workers were subject to similar decisions, a B Laban statement carried by media outlets on Thursday denied that it had taken any arbitrary action to dismiss employees. It stated that it took action for the “voluntary” transfer of 85 percent of its Alexandria-based workforce to Greater Cairo as part of a restructuring and integration process for all its factories to merge into a new centralized factory in Obour City. 

The move was aimed at “doubling production capacity and implementing control and quality systems.”.

In return, B Laban stated it offered employees benefits, including a 70 percent relocation allowance, a 20 percent meal allowance and free transportation. Meanwhile, legal settlements were reached for 15 percent of the employees who refused to transfer, according to the company, which added that it is “committed to the labor law.”

Employees of branches outside of Alexandria have reported similar decisions. A Cairo employee at the company's branch in Qanater al-Khayriyah told Mada Masr last week that he was forced to resign four months before the end of his contract term, in exchange for July’s salary. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the worker said he was informed a decision had been made to transfer him and five colleagues at the branch to another governorate but not told which.

The workers attempted to persuade management to reverse the decision but were not able to.

They were informed by management only that "the company had liquidated one of its factories in Alexandria and would purchase a plot of land to establish a large factory, and that it was redistributing its employees." 

The manager of the Qanater branch, Walid Hawash, denied to Mada Masr any knowledge of news circulating about worker layoffs or transfers to other branches. 

Two employees at a B Laban factory in Obour City described a similar pattern earlier this year, telling Mada Masr that health violations at the factory were flagged in April, but that instead of working to address these violations, the decision was made to relocate the factory to the Fifth Settlement, a practice replicated for several other branches. 

The employees said at the time that dozens of workers were laid off, mostly Sudanese nationals who had been working temporarily without being granted social or health insurance, while others were transferred from locations close to their homes to distant locations, making it nearly impossible for them to continue working. 

The owner of the company said in April that it employs a total of 25,000 people, in Egypt and abroad.