With no resolution from management, BBC Cairo workers plan to continue strike for higher wages

"After months of correspondence, meetings and mediation by the Journalists Syndicate, BBC management in London still refuse to respond to our demands," said Khaled al-Balshy, representing BBC Cairo’s Egyptian workers as they take action to push for higher pay.

"We are giving managers a chance to communicate with us before beginning a fourth strike on September 4," said Balshy. 

The syndicate head was speaking at a Wednesday evening presser to conclude the tenth and final day of a strike undertaken by BBC workers — their third this summer as they push for better wages and fairer working conditions.

As budget cuts, restructuring and a set of new competitors shake the once-strong foundations of the British state broadcaster, journalists a continent away in the UK press union backed their Cairo colleagues Wednesday with a demonstration in solidarity. 

Poorly compensated — both in comparison to the foreign nationals with whom they work side-by-side in Cairo and in comparison to the staff at other regional offices in Lebanon and Turkey — Egyptian workers are treated with discrimination, according to the workers’ statement which Balshy read out on Wednesday evening. 

“Management is exploiting the declining economic situation in Egypt and the devaluation of the local currency, which is negatively impacting the working conditions of employees in the Cairo office,” he continued.

Egyptian workers are paid in Egyptian pounds, at rates that have not been adjusted since 2020. But since early 2022, the currency has lost over 50 percent in value against the dollar and inflation has reached record levels. 

Pay grades that were already low in comparison to other press institutions and the cost of living are now untenable, according to Balshy and former staff who previously spoke to Mada Masr. 

Balshy added that a wage increase isn’t workers’ only demand, but also that management should also stop other discriminatory measures they took during the strike. “We refuse the management’s punitive policy of deducting three days’ worth of wages during the strike and its threats to deduct the wages of all 10 days in violation of the Egyptian labor law.”

While employers may legally deduct strike days from workers’ balance of leave, it is illegal to deduct pay for the strike days.

This is the third strike by BBC employees in the past three months, following a three-day strike in July and a one-day strike in June as employees escalated to pressure management to meet their demands.

BBC managers have not spoken to the press, but published a statement on August 23 from a BBC spokesperson saying, "We are still keen to communicate with the strikers in order to reach a solution," adding that they raised workers' salaries by at least 27 percent during the period between March and July of this year to mitigate the effects of inflation in Egypt.

Balshy refuted the statement. “The managers neither made a suitable offer to the striking workers, nor did they try to communicate with them or with the syndicate in Egypt throughout the duration of the strike,” he said.

Noting the workers’ intention to strike again in September, he added, "if management does not present us with a serious offer that eliminates the workers' constant suffering, then we will be forced to take this step." 

In solidarity with Egyptian journalists, the National Union of Journalists in Britain organized a sit-in in front of the BBC headquarters on Wednesday, where people gathered on the gray paving of London’s Portland Place to raise banners bearing the demands of journalists in Cairo.

The BBC has undergone budget cuts and restructuring leading to the closure of several departments of the BBC World Service in January with nearly 400 people laid off. BBC Radio Arabic, meanwhile, ceased broadcasting on January 27 after 85 years of service.

As the broadcaster undergoes changes, and the press environment in Egypt has shifted in line with the political and economic climate, former staff and journalists told Mada Masr that the organization no longer presents an attractive prospect to current or would-be employees.