Deputy head of parliament’s Manpower Committee Ihab Mansour pressed Egypt’s Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday over unpaid wages for thousands of contract workers, some left without salaries for more than four years despite court orders mandating permanent appointments and back pay.
Workers in units including school nutrition, seed testing, agricultural mechanization and afforestation have lodged near-weekly complaints that have gone unanswered. “No one feels our pain. Can any state employee survive four years without a salary?” said Ali Mohammed, an employee at the Minya agriculture directorate, in comments to Al Manassa.
Mansour, who leads the Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary bloc, said that through the parliamentary question he filed, he is seeking to hold the Agriculture Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the Central Agency for Organization and Administration accountable. Mansour also called for suspending the pay of agriculture officials he said were responsible for the delays.
Protest by Ministry of Agriculture employees demanding unpaid wages, Feb. 2025Appointed without pay
Approximately 35,000 workers are affected, according to Mansour. He told Al Manassa that ministry officials revealed this figure during previous parliamentary discussions.
Tarek Ahmed, who worked in school nutrition factories in Fayoum before transferring to the Seed Production Department, said he has been with the ministry since 2006. Despite a 2014 contract and an expected permanent appointment in 2017, nothing materialized until he and colleagues won a 2021 court ruling for appointment and back pay.
However, even after the ministry executed the appointment, salaries remained frozen. Ahmed explained that he and about 2,000 employees in Fayoum were moved to the permanent payroll budget, yet they have not been paid for over 50 months despite regular attendance.
“I even pay for the motorcycle gasoline to visit farmers out of my own pocket,” Ahmed said. “We are staying patient in hopes of getting our rights. We aren’t asking for the impossible; we just want our monthly salary like any other employee in the country.”
Bureaucratic stalling and broken promises
The situation is similar for employees in Beni Suef, Minya, and Giza. Amal Hassan, who has worked since 1995 within an afforestation project, saw her 40 Egyptian pound monthly salary stop in 2006. Despite a 2022 court ruling for her appointment at the Beheira Agriculture Directorate, she remains unpaid.
“Every day they tell us they need more papers or copies of the rulings,” Hassan told Al Manassa. “We prepare them and deliver them to Cairo, but there are no appointments and no salaries. We don’t know how to live.”
Government entities continue to shift blame. Ahmed Mahmoud, a worker in Kafr El-Sheikh with 18 years of service, noted that the Ministry of Agriculture blames the Central Agency for Organization and Administration, which in turn points to the Ministry of Finance. “We’ve been screaming for four years and no one hears us,” Mahmoud said. “Should we feed our children stones or turn to theft?”
Representative Ihab Mansour described the situation as a “crime.” He noted that although the Agriculture Committee ordered the government to resolve the crisis within a week during a session last year, no action was taken.
Sources within the Fayoum and Kafr El-Sheikh directorates told Al Manassa that directors have raised the issue multiple times with Minister of Agriculture Alaa Farouk. Farouk reportedly claimed the Ministry of Finance is responsible for disbursements, while Agriculture’s role is limited to submitting the names and data of the new appointees.
