The Committee for Justice (CFJ) has documented that the management of Ceramica Innova (formerly Al-Fara’ena), located in the Kom Oshim industrial zone in Fayoum, has issued dismissal notices to approximately 45 workers who have been on forced unpaid leave for several months, under the claim that they refused to return to work after being summoned.
In March, the company’s management placed 350 workers from various departments on a six-month forced unpaid leave, during which they receive only their basic salary. This includes 130 workers with disabilities hired under the legally mandated 5% quota. Those who refused the leave were laid off.
Earlier, two months ago, the company forced all female employees, numbering 57 women, into mandatory unpaid leave. Recently, it also prepared a list of about 300 additional workers believed to be at risk of dismissal in the coming phase.
According to sources among the workers, last week the management called some workers back from leave due to operational needs, and around 15 of them resumed work. However, at the same time, dismissal notices were sent to 45 other workers, whom the company accused of refusing to return despite being summoned — a claim the affected workers denied, stating that they did not receive any official notice calling them back to work.
Workers and sources describe this as part of a systematic plan aimed at dismissing as many employees as possible under any available pretext, while evading financial and legal obligations toward them.
The CFJ condemns the use of forced unpaid leaves and arbitrary dismissals as tools to pressure and remove workers without legal justification, especially in the absence of effective oversight by the relevant authorities. The committee considers this move an extension of repeated violations committed by the company’s management against workers, including discrimination, forcing women into group leave, and depriving employees of their rightful benefits.
The CFJ firmly rejects these unjustified dismissals and calls on Egypt’s Ministry of Labor to urgently intervene to stop their implementation, ensure the reinstatement of dismissed workers, conduct a thorough investigation into these violations, hold those responsible accountable, and safeguard the labor rights enshrined in the law.
