Public employees in Egypt will no longer work from home on Sundays

CAIRO – 31 August 2023: Public employees in Egypt who have been working from home on Sundays in August as part of a government plan to reduce electricity consumption will work their shifts in the office starting September.

The decision was approved by the Cabinet in its weekly meeting on Wednesday.

Allowing public employees who do not provide direct services to citizens to work from home on Sundays had been decided as the country has witnessed an increase in energy consumption due to the heatwave in July and August, which caused power cuts nationwide.

The increase in energy consumption has caused power stations to suffer from a shortage in gas supply, the government said in July, forcing the country to implement a load-shedding program that includes scheduled power cuts.

Earlier in August, Sisi said Egypt needs around 18,000 ton of mazut per day to operate the power plants at full capacity.

Monthly, the power plants require half a million tons of mazut at a cost of up to $350 million, the president added.

This comes while Egypt is suffering from a foreign currency crunch due to the economic crisis that put pressures on the local currency and caused inflation to soar.