CAIRO: A labor rights group has welcomed a court ruling that lays down an important precedent concerning the right of workers transferred from one plant to another to receive fair remuneration for transport costs.
The ruling, issued by the Mahalla El-Kobra Appeals Court, quashes the transfer order issued against Wael Habib, a labor leader in the Ghazl El-Mahalla spinning factory who in December 2008 was transferred to the company’s Cairo office from its Mahalla factory.
The transfer followed Habib’s participation in an October 2008 demonstration by Mahalla workers against the factory’s rumored privatization. A number of workers were transferred following the protest.
Habib was not given remuneration to cover living costs in Cairo. The company also has not covered the transport costs of the three-hour commute between Mahalla and Cairo which Habib has been forced to make daily.
According to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR), which brought the case, the Mahalla appeals court described the transfer order as “arbitrary” and ordered that the company pay Habib LE 520 for each month since the worker’s transfer.
