CAIRO - Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdul Hadi on Thrusday launched an immediate probe into bigger layoffs of Egyptian workers in the industrial zone off the Canal city of Suez and replacing them with unskilled Asian laborers, officials said. Minister Abdul Hadi, who has been an active labour activist before assuming her ministerial post, has dispatched a fact-finding mission to the Gulf of Suez Industrial Zone, where more than 400 Thai and Indian workers have replaced Egyptian workers by venture owners including Orascom Construction Company and the Ezz Re-Bar Factory, a Ministry official said. More than 400 Egyptian welding and construction workers complained to Minister Abdul Hadi that they had been laid off by the owners and were replaced by workers from Thailand and India for no cogent reason, Enttisar Ibrahim, the head of the Ministry's Manpower Office, said. In their complaint, the laid off workers, led by Taha Ahmed Mahmoud of Orascom Company, wrote that the foreign laborers are incompetent because they have no shop-floor skills. "The factory owners have been offering these Thai and Indian workers extensive on the job training courses as well as free accommodation and transport in the New Tewfiqqia neighborhood on the outskirts of Suez City," Enttisar told the fact finding committee members during an unannounced tour that included the Northwest Industrial Zone, where the factories are located. Taha, according to the official Middle East News Agency (MENA), has provided the members with a video tape showing more than 200 Indian workers at one of the two factories as well as another video showing the workers inside their accommodation unit in the New Tewfiqqia neighborhood. He complained the owners' unjustified and cruel move would be feeding insecurities among workers who still have jobs and those Egyptians who desperately wanted them. Meanwhile, Alaa Badr, the Suez Governor's Deputy, has ordered the formation of an ad hoc committee that will be in-charge of preparing a detailed report about the number of expatriate workers in the Adabbiya and Northwest Industrial Zones as well as the status of Egyptian workers there. Taha has accused employers of shrinking their work forces at alarming clip and are turning to other ways to slash costs — including hiring cheap and untrained Asian workers. No officials from Orascom or Ezz Re-bars Factory were available to comment on this report.
