North Giza Labor Misdemeanor Court Adjourns Trial of Al-Bawaba News Management in Minimum Wage Case to March 9
The North Giza Misdemeanor Court (Labor Division) decided, on February 23, 2026, to adjourn the trial of the legal representative of Al-Bawaba News in connection with charges of failing to implement the legally mandated minimum wage for the newspaper’s employees, in Misdemeanor Case No. 133 of 2026, to the hearing scheduled for March 9, 2026.
The court had administratively postponed the hearing on February 23 due to an error in the transfer of a set of case files to the session clerk. A lawyer representing the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) clarified that such procedural errors are relatively common in the course of court proceedings and that the incident does not indicate any intention to obstruct or deliberately delay the case.
The Dokki Labor Office had previously referred a complaint filed by 275 employees of Al-Bawaba News to criminal prosecution after determining that the company’s management had committed a violation by failing to implement the National Wages Council’s Decision No. 15 of 2025, which sets the minimum wage. This failure constitutes a violation of Article 104 of Law No. 14 of 2025, as the establishment did not apply the legally mandated minimum wage to its employees.
The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights has undertaken full legal representation of a number of affected journalists at Al-Bawaba News, initiating the necessary judicial and administrative proceedings to safeguard their financial and employment rights against the management of the institution.
This followed a meeting between the Center’s lawyers and a group of journalists to examine possible legal avenues for defense, after the journalists had submitted collective formal complaints to the Dokki Labor Office. The complaints documented incidents of administrative harassment and obstruction of their ability to perform their work, followed by arbitrary dismissal measures and the withholding of salaries, in clear violation of the provisions of the Egyptian Labor Law and the constitutional guarantees protecting workers’ rights.
The dispute dates back to the last quarter of 2025, when the management began taking retaliatory and coercive measures in response to journalists’ demands for the implementation of the minimum wage. Approximately 70 journalists staged a sit-in at the newspaper’s headquarters on Mossadak Street, which lasted for 56 days. During this period, participants reported that basic services at the premises were cut off. The situation culminated in the forcible dispersal of the sit-in on the evening of Sunday, January 5, 2026, which compelled the journalists to relocate their protest to the headquarters of the Journalists’ Syndicate.
Meanwhile, the management reportedly escalated its actions against the journalists by withholding their salaries since November 2025 and filing criminal complaints accusing several of them of “participating in an unauthorized protest.” These complaints also targeted Journalists’ Syndicate board members Iman Auf and Mahmoud Kamel, following the Syndicate Council’s public support—under the leadership of Khaled El-Balshy—for the journalists’ demands.
