After working for six years, Mohamed still doesn’t have a prove that he works as a bills’ collector in the Water and Wastewater Company in Aswan; according to his “temporary” contract he signed for the company in 2018, he -or other collectors- cannot enjoy any of the labour rights offered for those with permanent contracts in the company, such as including his job title on his national ID.
This issue puts Mohamed in a state of constant anxiety since he started working for the company; not only during his working hours that requires him to deal with customers face to face, which my result getting into quarrels with the owners of the water metres and the beneficiaries of the service due to any dispute over the bills he collects, but anxiety imposes itself on his entire life, threatening Mohamed’s job security and his and his family’s stability.
Inside the company’s headquarters in Fereal district, Aswan, Mohamed -a pseudonym for one of the workers “Ain Al-Aswani” interviewed- takes turns in the sit-in with around 700 bill collectors who work for the company with temporary contracts, starting from last 19th June, demanding to have permanent contracts and the application of the “comprehensive regulations”, similar to the collectors of the company’s other branches all over the country, which requires obtaining fixed wages, in addition to the regular employee benefits.
I do not feel safe
Bills’ collectors work for Water and Wastewater Company in Aswan work on six months “temporary” agency contracts. The company -according to the contract terms- has the right to renew or end the contract anytime without prior notification or reasons or taking any legal or judicial measures, and collectors do not have the right to object or demand any compensation.
Moreover, the contract does not include any holidays or fixed wages or incentives; the monthly income for each collector depends on their commission according to the percentage of the bills collected, provided that they exceed 65%, if not, then the collector does not get any commission and only receives 2000 EGP as transportations allowance.
Mohamed is worried that the sit-in will end without responding to their demands, as it will be followed by dire consequences; “officials may become more stubborn, they may force us to work in less populated areas, some areas have lower population density like Sadaqa district, making it hard for us to achieve a higher than 70% collection percentage, which will affect our commissions”.
“If I knew I would remain a temporary employee, I would have resigned years ago, but now I’m over 43 years old and won’t be able to find another job”, added Mohamed.
In 2022, Mohamed already applied in the recruitment competition announced by the company to appoint technicians, and he and other temp employees in the company requested that an internal competition be held between them, as they have been waiting to become permanent for years, however the company agreed provided that the maximum age for the applicants would be “35 years old”, the thing that stood as an obstacle in front of Mohamed and others, “a permanent contract, like other bill collectors in the governorates, will secure my future and my family’s as well”.
Another bill collector described for “Ain Al-Aswani” the company’s reasons behind refusing to turn their contracts into permanent ones as “stubbornness and discrepancy”, as the company announced at the same time employing 700 technicians, “we confronted members of the administration who came to the sit-in on its second day, and they argued that the company does not have a budget for fixed wages, and as for the technicians’ salaries, they said that they were paid by a financial grant from the holding company, the “main company””.
The protestors were not convinced by the company’s response, they weren’t convinced by the attempts of Major General Ashraf Attia, Governor of Aswan, who went to them on Wednesday, 22nd May, to negotiate with them at their sit-in headquarters. The talks ended with the collectors’ refusal of the negotiations terms the governor offered and decided to continue their sit-in. According to one of the workers, “the negotiations were only on increasing the transportation allowance to 3000 EGP instead of 2000 EGP, and changing the commission percentage without signing any comprehensive employment contracts for the collectors”.
Bear your own losses alone
The protestors clarified to “Ain Al-Aswani” that it is not only about changing their title from temporary to permanent employees, but they are seeking this “sense of security”, this is their right as long as they do their jobs, they do not need fixed wages only but other rights like health care in case of “work injury”.
One of the collectors who refused to say his name told “Ain Al-Aswani” about a previous health crisis he went through, “I suffer from diabetes, and during work I was hit by a Tuk-tuk, and the doctor ordered me to rest at home for fifteen days”.
The employee’s colleagues decided to fill in for him during his rest period in order to help him achieve high percent collection so as not to affect his commission, “the commission alone is not enough, I provide for my family and my parents”.
“Ain Al-Aswani” viewed a photocopy of the agency contract of employment for the Water Company in Aswan, and confirmed the workers’ statements about the work regulations or the right to contract termination, whereas the new contracts of several branches of the holding company in Qena, Sohag, and Sharqia, which they have photocopies of them, state the right of the second party to receive performance evaluation bonus and any other allowances according to the applicable average basic wage.
In new contracts for bills’ collectors in other governorates, the collector has the right to receive, in accordance with Article 12, fixed wages according to their job grade, provided that they receive incentives, allowances, and variable wages stipulated by the company’s bylaws for the workers.
Broken promises
The collectors take turns in the sit-in daily, whereas some of them stay inside the company’s headquarters, “our patience has run thin while we’re trying to claim our rights, especially after our colleagues in other branches signed comprehensive contracts in the same year they were assigned to their jobs”, said one of the workers.
Then he added, “two years ago we contacted the head of collectors then the head of the division, reaching to the chairman of the company’s board of directors, and all the discussions ended with promises and calls for waiting until the new fiscal year or the new year”.
Another collector says that has worked for the company on commission since 2017 now, and during these years he and his colleagues only received promises of becoming permanent, “if they were honest with us from the beginning I would have quit my job, but I’m over 35 years old now, where will I go? Until now I do not receive a fixed salary and my wages reach 3000 EGP after the commission! We need laws to protect our right to have insurance per employee, and not collective insurance for all the collectors”.
Despite attempts of several parties to intervene to persuade the collectors to disperse the sit-in, Mohamed and the rest of the protesters are sticking to their demands, noting that they stopped several times since 2023, and there has been no change in their conditions, unlike their peers in the company’s branches in other governorates.
Many talked to “Ain Al-Aswani” and asked to not mention their names for their safety, they indicated that a group of members of the labour office and the company’s administration in Aswan attended the sit-in in its second day and discussions with them ended with the inability to implement the workers’ demands, claiming the lack of finances.
Whereas one of the workers mentioned that one of his colleagues employed by the company came to the sit-in headquarters and told them that a person who identified himself as an officer in the Ministry of Interior phoned him and asked to meet a group of the protesters in Aswan Court on Nile Corniche Street, “four of the protesters went to the court, we entered a room on the ground floor at the main entrance, where met by a person in a civilian clothing who introduced himself as an investigation officer, he was accompanied by three officers in military uniform who verbally identified themselves, they asked us not to hold our sit-in in the street, but move it to the company. At the end of the discussion, we were notified that if people continue to sit outside the company, we may be arrested”.
Last January, the workers met with the Chairman of the Holding Company’s Board of Directors, Mamdouh Raslan, during his visit to Aswan, yet he informed them of the company’s intention of cancelling the comprehensive contracts for collectors in other branches starting next June so that all workers are equal.
“Ain Al-Aswani” contacted Mohamed Abdulaziz, head of the commercial sector at the Water and Wastewater Company in Aswan, by phone, asking about the demands of the workers and their current situation, but he asked to set a later date to talk, and upon contacting him again, more than once, even trying to reach him via WhatsApp, he did not respond until this date.
The Water and Wastewater Company in Aswan is affiliated with the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater, established in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 135 of 2004 to be a legal entity and subject to the provisions of Law No. 203 of 1991 and its executive regulations.
According to Al-Borsa newspaper, in February 2024, Engineer Mamdouh Raslan, Chairman of the Holding Company’s Board of Directors, said that the estimated budget for the company and its subsidiaries had been approved for the fiscal year 2023-2024, with a total of 39.31 billion EGP.
A dead end
Whereas Mohamed and his colleagues are determined to continue the sit-in until their demands were met, they were surprised on Tuesday morning, 28th May, by an announcement published on the official page of the Water and Wastewater Company in Aswan about its need for collectors.
As if Mohamed’s fears were coming true, his gut told him that the advertisement - in which the company explained that those wishing to apply for the job would be received at the company's customer service centre, which is the same location as the current sit-in - is an attempt by the company to pressure the collectors to break up their sit-in and continue with the same working conditions or “be replaced”.
