"Egyptian factory workers protests non-payment of wages following one worker’s suicide" 23 February 2022

Thousands of factory workers in Egypt staged a protest on Tuesday, February 22, following the suicide of a worker who was unable to repay his debts on time due to non-payment of salaries by the employer for months. The protests were brutally suppressed by the central security forces, who used tear gas on the protesting workers while attempting to break up the protests...

...According to Mada Masr, Afify was the fourth worker in the Universal group factory to have committed suicide since 2019. Another worker had died after suffering a heart attack while doing an overtime shift at the factory for extra income.

...The workers have been regularly organizing various forms of collective action over the issue of non-payment of wages and the substandard and unsafe living and work conditions for the workers. The company has reportedly stopped paying wages to its workers since July last year. Its manager claimed that the company’s sales were declining in the wake of fall in the value of the Egyptian pound. The decline in the workers living and working conditions is also attributed to the “structural adjustment” policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)...

...However, until now, only a third of the workers have been paid. Even these workers have received only half of their overdue salaries accrued in the last few months, as per workers’ testimonies.