Source: Al-Bawaba News notifies striking workers it plans to liquidate company

Managers at Al-Bawaba News informed its journalists on Sunday that it intends to liquidate the company, a managing editor at the website told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

The notification came as journalists continued the open strike they began at the newspaper’s headquarters on November 17 to demand that the company implement minimum wage. Workers speaking to Mada Masr previously said that their monthly wages are capped at a maximum of LE2,000, a fraction of the legal minimum.

The decision to liquidate the website came during a Sunday negotiation session that included three representatives of the sit-in, Journalists Syndicate chair Khaled al-Balshy, syndicate board member Mahmoud Kamel and the newspaper's legal advisor Yehia al-Diasty, as well as several editors, according to the source. 

Representatives of the company’s journalists and of the syndicate repudiated the proposal that the outlet pursue liquidation proceedings, and gave management 24 hours to make a final decision regarding their demands, one journalist who is protesting the decision told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity.

Mada Masr contacted Diasty to inquire about whether journalists would be compensated in the event that the company proceeds with liquidation, but he declined to comment.

Mada Masr reached out to Balshy and Kamel to ask them about the syndicate’s planned course of action if management did not respond within 24 hours, but received no response until the time of publication.

In October, weeks before the strike, 70 journalists at the newspaper submitted an official memorandum to the Journalists Syndicate outlining their demands. The syndicate entered negotiations with the newspaper's management, which responded that it was facing financial difficulties.

Journalists at Al-Bawaba also sent complaints about their wages to the prime minister's office and the Labor Ministry, which sent inspectors to visit the outlet’s headquarters earlier this month, giving management a 10-day deadline to implement minimum wage, according to Eman Ouf, a Journalists Syndicate official. She told Mada Masr that the inspectors said the company would face fines if it did not implement the legal minimum.

When no action was taken to raise their wages, the Al-Bawaba journalists began the sit-in, accusing the outlet’s management, headed by journalist Abdel Rahim Ali and his daughter, editor-in-chief Dalia Abdel Rahim, of refusing to grant the employees their financial rights.

Balshy has expressed solidarity with the striking journalists, accusing management of “intransigence in dealing with the colleagues.” 

Dozens of journalists from other newspapers also joined the strike on Saturday to express solidarity with the sit-in. The Journalists Syndicate had previously addressed all boards of directors and editors-in-chief of press institutions in October to demand that they implement the minimum wage of LE7,000 per month in light of the “increasing living burdens faced by journalists,” following a strike organized by Al-Wafd journalists last month to demand the minimum wage.

As well as saying it will seek liquidation, the newspaper’s management also removed the name of its founder, Abdel Rahim Ali, from the masthead of the website and the newspaper on Sunday. Ali had published a post on Facebook hours earlier, stating that he had resigned from the board of directors “a long time ago.”

The Journalists Syndicate had referred Ali, in his capacity as chair of the newspaper’s board, and Editor-in-Chief Dalia Abdel Rahim, to internal investigation by the syndicate almost two years ago in relation to the “arbitrary dismissal of several journalists and salary reductions.” The syndicate had halted the registration of Al-Bawaba journalists at the same time.