CAIRO — Egypt’s interim president ordered a pay raise for police on Wednesday, after some of their forces joined factory workers, doctors and pharmacists increasingly on strike over the past month.
Adli Mansour said police will receive a 30 per cent salary increase as hazard pay starting in March.
Egyptian officials are struggling to deal with the labour strikes, which have dealt a blow to the country’s interim military-backed government and already flagging economy.
More than 22,000 workers in a northern city have been on strike for over 10 days, demanding the removal of the government-operated Textile Holding Company’s president, Fouad Abdel Aleem, and higher wages.
Doctors around the country have also been striking periodically for months now, demanding higher salaries.
Egyptians have dealt with rising prices and high unemployment for most of the country’s political transition, since Hosni Mubarak left power in 2011. Employment is upward of 13 per cent, and experts put youth unemployment at more than 25 per cent. The annual rate of inflation stood at 11.36 per cent as of January, according to the central bank.
Police also staged strikes in six provinces last week, asking for higher wages for their work amid increasingly dangerous conditions. Lower-ranking police officers are paid some 800 Egyptian pounds — around $115 — per month.
