Int’l Workers' Day: Sisi says Egypt’s laborers ‘driving force’ for progress

CAIRO – 1 May 2020: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Friday has expressed “great” appreciation for the workers’ efforts in various production fields, as the country celebrates the International Workers’ Day on May 1st.

“I assure you, Egypt's loyal workers, that you represent a national sector that is the driving force for building and progress, the main axis of development and the firm base for production,” Sisi said in a Facebook post.

The president greeted all “honorable workers, manufacturers and growers” of Egypt whose “strong will and sincere work” help the country set out for a “better future.”

Video: Egypt's Sisi reprimands officials for failing to provide construction workers with masks

CAIRO - 9 April 2020: President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reprimanded officials at a construction site Thursday for not providing workers with masks to protect them from COVID-19. "Orders must be followed. Why aren't these people wearing masks? How much are they even paid in a day?

Sisi has earlier launched an initiative to allocate allowance for informal workers, whose work have been affected by the current crisis due to the novel coronavirus.

The workplace in Egypt reached 28.9 million employees in the fourth quarter of the 2019 fiscal year, according to a report issued by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) in November 2020.

Manpower Minister Mohamed Saafan late in April said that 2.5 million beneficiaries will receive the president’s three-month grant for irregular workers.

The LE 500 ($31.8) monthly grant is paid out at the branches of the Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE).

In mid-March, Sisi emphasized adopting a number of measures aimed at increasing the income of civil servants in the country to raise their standard of living.

The measures included endorsing the periodic allowance for employees included in the civil service law with a 7 percent of the total comprehensive wage and employees not included in the law with a 12 percent of the basic wage.

The President also directed increasing the tax exemption limit for those whose annual wage falls between LE 8,000 ($509) - 15,000 ($955) and creating a low tax bracket with a value of 2.5 percent for income earners that make less than LE 35,000 ($2,228) annually, so as to contribute to increasing the monthly income of citizens with the least income.