Police violently disperse workers' protest outside Ministry of Manpower

Mada Masr

Police violently break up workers' protest

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Police forces violently dispersed a sit-in in front of the Manpower Ministry on Tuesday.

Dozens of employees who had been dismissed from their jobs gathered in front of the ministry in Nasr City after being denied the severance pay promised them by Manpower Minister Kamal Abu Eita.

The Popular Socialist Alliance Party denounced the violent dispersal in a statement issued on Wednesday, accusing police officers of intentionally clashing with the protesting workers.  

The statement condemned the use of force, and called on Abu Eita to push for changing the legislation that governs the process of firing workers.

Ragab el-Shimy, a worker fired from his job at the Textile Company in Shebeen al-Kom in August 2011, told Mada Masr that the sit-in was dispersed in 15 minutes.

"We were 35 workers and the police force included 20 officers who arrived at the sit-in in two cars," Shimy said.

He claimed that on Thursday the workers filed a police report against Abu Eita, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim and Nasr City Police Station chief Tareq Zayed pursuant to the incident.


*Archived photo by Goran Tomasevic courtesy of  REUTERS