Workers at Misr El Amria Spinning & Weaving Co. in Alexandria pressed on with their strike for a second day Wednesday, rejecting management’s bid to calculate a 12% allowance on the basic wage rather than the social insurance wage. They also turned down the company union committee’s offer to end the walkout in exchange for a weeklong promise to resolve the dispute, according to three workers who spoke to Al Manassa.
Workers said they were caught off guard Tuesday when management issued an administrative circular granting a 12% allowance on the basic wage, alongside the 3% periodic raise on the social insurance wage approved in January. The move contradicted a pledge by CEO Mohamed Abdel Salam, made in a meeting with staff last week, to calculate the 12% allowance on the social insurance wage and fold 7% of it into the basic wage, one worker told Al Manassa.
Misr El Amria Spinning & Weaving Co.’s Decision to Approve a Special Allowance on Base PayThe worker, who asked not to be named, added that about three weeks ago management issued a circular saying it had contacted the labor office and the Alexandria Directorate of Labor for clarification of the recent decisions concerning the special allowance and how it should be calculated. Management said it would publish the directorate’s letter as soon as it arrived, but failed to do so. Workers have yet to see any correspondence from the directorate.
On July 1, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued Law No. 75 of 2026, granting state employees not covered by the Civil Service Law “a special allowance of 15% of the basic wage, with a minimum of 150 Egyptian pounds (about $3) a month.”
The law stipulates that the allowance forms part of the worker’s basic wage and that employees of public sector and public business sector companies receive “a special allowance calculated on the basis of the difference between the percentage stipulated in the first paragraph of this article and the percentage used to calculate the annual periodic raise, with the value of the special allowance incorporated into each worker’s basic wage.”
Another worker told Al Manassa that employees were angry over the 600-pound cost-of-living allowance previously approved by Misr El Amria and were demanding it be increased to 1,300 pounds, in line with other textile companies. He said workers and management had an years-old agreement that employees would receive any financial benefits granted to their counterparts at other spinning and weaving companies.
He added that Abdel Salam had also endorsed this principle. But when workers showed him a document proving that employees at Kafr El-Dawar Spinning received a 1,300-pound cost-of-living allowance, he questioned its authenticity and said it might be “fabricated.” When they presented pay slips from Kafr El-Dawar workers confirming their account, he said he would look into the matter.
A third worker said union committee chair Mohamed El-Sawy and committee secretary-general Mahmoud Gad asked employees to restart production. They promised to contact management and try to resolve the dispute within a week, but the workers refused, demanding a management circular approving the calculation of the allowance on the social insurance wage before ending their strike.
The third worker added that employees confronted El-Sawy and Gad with their earlier statements that Law No. 75 of 2026 obliged the company to calculate the special allowance on the social insurance wage, using the same rules applied to the periodic raise. Both acknowledged that this was the case.
Al Manassa tried to reach El-Sawy by phone to ask about the union’s position on calculating the allowance on the basic rather than the social insurance wage and how the strike was progressing. He has not responded by the time of publication.
In April 2026, Misr El Amria workers launched a strike that lasted six days, demanding an increase in the hazard allowance, a pay rise equivalent to 25% of the basic wage in line with engineers, and action over what they described as “violations in the application of the minimum wage.” They suspended the strike after Abdel Salam promised to meet their demands.
The company has also witnessed several protest actions over the past two years. The most notable was a strike in late February against a sudden increase in payroll deductions. It continued until March 3, when workers suspended it after meeting with Abdel Salam, who again promised considering their demands for higher wages and allowances.
In 2025, Misr El Amria textile workers went on strike for 16 days over what they described as “manipulation” in applying the minimum wage. The action led to the resignation of the company’s former CEO, Ahmed Amr Ragab. Workers decided to end the strike under pressure and threats of dismissal and being reported to National Security, saying this came alongside “successful negotiations that secured a number of their demands.”
