Dismissed workers stage protests demanding reimbursement

Workers from the state-owned Mahalla Textile Company, the Petotrade Company Rural Health Guides, Misr-Iran Textile Company, Ameriya Textile Company, Indorama Shebine Textile Company, Mansoura-Espagna Textile Company, and the Future Company for Pipe Production met with official from the National Council for Human Rights and the National Council for Women to protest “arbitrary and punitive lay-offs” demanding reinstatement.

The dismissed workers organized a campaign titled “We will not be afraid” which according to its leaflet aims at,
 
“Having the ETUF cancel punitive lay-off orders and arbitrary deductions in pay; halting trumped-up charges against workers before the courts; providing assistance payments to sacked workers; and providing transportation fees for those workers who are punitively relocated until they can be reinstated in their original workplaces”.
 
According to Ghareeb Saqr, a worker-delegate from the Misr-Iran Textile Company the meeting in which journalists were barred from attending was promising despite claims by the NCHR and NCW that they were purely “consultative councils”.
 
The workers who were sacked for demanding their wages, bonuses, benefits, rights, and the establishment of unions had their grievances filed.
Officials from the ILO informed workers that although they took note of their grievances, they were not authorized to reinstate sacked workers or enforce workers’ demands.