Court orders Al-Bawaba News to compensate unfairly dismissed journalist
An Egyptian labor court ordered the newspaper Al-Bawaba News on Tuesday to pay 295,600 Egyptian pounds ($6,000) to journalist Wesam H. H. in compensation for arbitrary dismissal and unpaid financial entitlements, defense lawyer Maryam Abu Saree told Al Manassa.
The North Giza Court of First Instance, First Labor Circuit, issued the ruling in Case No. 377 of 2026, ordering the publication to compensate the journalist while simultaneously dismissing a countersuit filed by the newspaper’s management.
According to a statement released by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), the awarded sum includes 200,000 pounds in compensation for unfair dismissal alongside material and moral damages, 21,000 pounds in lieu of notice, and 54,600 pounds for unused leave balances.
The court further awarded the journalist 14,000 pounds in withheld back wages for November and December 2025, in addition to 6,000 pounds covering minimum wage differentials for February of that same year.
The court also mandated the news outlet to pay wage differentials owed to Wesam from March 1 through Oct. 30, 2025, benchmarked against the statutory monthly minimum wage of 7,000 pounds set during that period.
In addition to the monetary compensation, the ruling requires the publication to hand over an official work experience certificate and return all hiring and personal credential documents submitted upon his employment.
Maryam Abu Saree, the ECESR attorney handling the case, stated that around six journalists have secured similar court judgments against Al-Bawaba News, noting that a court delivered a comparable ruling in favor of a female journalist recently.
Abu Saree noted that the decision remains a ruling of first instance, which grants the newspaper’s management a 40-day window to file an appeal.
She clarified that should the outlet decline to appeal, the verdict becomes final and enforceable, whereas if the administration challenges the ruling, litigation will proceed through the legal framework until a final appellate determination is rendered.
Wesam worked at Al-Bawaba News starting in 2014 under an open-ended employment contract, according to the ECESR statement. He began his tenure on a monthly salary of 1,500 pounds, which the publication later raised to 2,000 pounds.
The conflict stems from an on-site sit-in staged on Nov. 17, 2025, when 257 journalists and staff members occupied the paper’s headquarters to protest management’s refusal to enforce the government-mandated minimum wage.
The striking workers subsequently filed a collective labor grievance with the Dokki Labor Office. On Jan. 4, 2026, the newspaper’s administration barred several employees from entering the workplace, prompting the affected workers to file lawsuits demanding their accrued financial entitlements and redress for unfair termination.
The North Giza ruling follows an earlier decision issued on April 20, 2026, in which the Giza Labor Misdemeanor Court fined the chairman of the publishing institution 3,341,000 pounds over the company’s refusal to apply the minimum wage across the cohort of 257 journalists and workers, the ECESR reported.
The ECESR pointed out that the misdemeanor fine and Wesam’s labor lawsuit constitute two separate legal battles: the previous proceeding addressed the non-enforcement of the nationwide minimum wage across the broader workforce, whereas the latest civil judgment targets the individual journalist’s withheld labor dues and unlawful sacking.