Twenty-five workers, including nine children, were killed and at least 92 others, including two children, were injured in two dozen workplace accidents across various sectors in July, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms’ (ECRF) Labor Roundup bulletin, released Monday.
The accidents occurred across several governorates, sectors and industries, with private-sector workers bearing the brunt. The findings underscore persistent safety failures affecting workers both on the job and while traveling to work.
Workers continued to face grave risks at job sites and while commuting, including falls from heights, collapses, worker transport crashes, electrocution, and suffocation from hazardous materials. The recurring accidents reflect persistent failures to enforce occupational health and safety standards, the bulletin said.
Among the most serious incidents was a three-wheeled vehicle carrying child agricultural workers that fell into the Nag Hammadi canal in Assiut governorate, killing nine children and injuring two others.
ECRF said the incident exposed the dangers facing children working in agriculture, including their exploitation as a cheaper source of labor than adults.
The rights group said the Assiut crash also showed continued violations of legal protections governing child labor, which allow children to work or train only under specific conditions and prohibit assigning them hazardous tasks. It also cited the lack of measures to protect children traveling to and from work, including safe transportation, which increases their risk of serious injury or death.
At least six employees of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation were arrested in July over their participation in protests demanding the payment of salaries withheld for years and enforcement of court rulings in their favor. They were later released without appearing before prosecutors, which ECRF said “raises suspicions of arbitrary detention and the use of security measures to intimidate workers.”
Conditions remain worst for agricultural workers, who accounted for 18.7% of Egypt’s employed population in the 2024 labor force survey. The sector is among the largest employers of informal labor, and women and children face particularly severe exploitation, with poverty pushing much of them to spend more than 15 hours a day working and commuting, packed into dilapidated vehicles, for only a few dozen Egyptian pounds (less than $1).
The commission’s July bulletin also documented a decision by the Samanoud Textiles Company to suspend six female workers, obstruct their complaints at the labor office, and attempt to break their strike by bringing in temporary workers under threat. Al Manassa followed the dispute. ECRF called the measures “an escalation against striking workers,” adding that they violated the right to strike and freedom of trade union organization.
ECRF called on the company’s management to halt retaliatory measures against workers, restore health insurance services, implement the minimum wage, and address the causes of the crisis through dialogue rather than escalation.
The bulletin also documented action by bill collectors and meter readers at the Qalyoubia Drinking Water and Sanitation Company. It received complaints from 120 workers who said payment of the minimum wage had been made conditional on signing agency employment contracts and that they had been threatened with dismissal if they refused to change the nature of their contracts.
