Cairo’s Drinking Water and Wastewater Company has referred a supervisor at the Fustat works for investigation after he urged workers to sign a memo to the Accountability State Authority complaining about repeated deductions from their pay “without legal basis,” two company workers told Al Manassa.
One of the workers, who asked not to be named, said the company deducted 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about $21) from each worker’s salary in January and stopped issuing pay slips that break down wages and deductions. There’s talk inside the company that pay slips will be scrapped for good, the worker said calling it “outright theft.”
The worker said colleagues kept gathering signatures in solidarity with the supervisor under investigation, saying his complaint reflects a collective problem. He said they plan to send the memo to the central auditing body once enough have signed, without specifying how many.
A second worker said the supervisor was questioned early this week by the company’s legal affairs department and faced accusations of posting Facebook updates that “aimed at turning workers against management.” The supervisor denied that, the worker said, insisting he was exercising his right to complain and turned to oversight bodies after management ignored questions about the deductions.
The second worker said that as punishment, and as a form of intimidation, the supervisor could have up to 10 days’ pay docked, adding that another colleague faced a similar situation over a Facebook post.
The company saw a wave of protests in November, including simultaneous sit-ins and demonstrations at multiple Cairo branches, calling for the integration of overdue bonuses dating back to 2016, fair application of Egypt’s minimum wage policy, tax reimbursement adjustments, and the removal of senior executives—particularly deputy chairman for financial and administrative affairs, Ali Amasha. The protests spread to Giza and Sharqiya and Beni Suef and Minya before being suspended after 13 days.
Workers at the company previously told Al Manassa they were struggling with declining living standards, with average net pay of no more than 5,800 Egyptian pounds (about $123), pushing many to rely on credit cards and borrowing to cover basic needs. Some, they said, accumulated bank debts reaching tens of thousands of pounds, then turned to borrowing from relatives and friends, until cash advances became a monthly routine.
Cairo Water workers resumed their protests on Dec. 6 with a sit-in at the 10th District network depot, followed by another on Dec. 11 in front of the Zaytoun depot with workers from several sites.
