The minister added that the Iron & Steel Company workers’ compensation will be rewarding and generous
The Ministry of Public Business Sector (MPBS) is working with the Ministry of Manpower to determine the compensation to be provides to individuals at the Egyptian Iron & Steel Company as it is liquidated.
The MPBS has provided the data of around 6,400 employees to the Ministry of Manpower to decide on the amount of compensation they will receive.
Hisham Tawfik, Minister of Public Business Sector, also noted that negotiations will also take place with the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) as part of this effort.
Tawfik said that his ministry is ready to compensate all employees at the company’s Helwan factory during a roundtable held on Sunday. A limited number of workers who have some of the skills needed by the companies affiliated with the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company may be transferred there.
The minister added that the Iron & Steel Company workers’ compensation will be rewarding and generous, and that the provision of sources to finance the compensation was partially behind the three to four month delay on the decision to liquidate the company.
Read: Ministry of Public Business to compensate Egyptian Iron and Steel Company workers
He added that there is no intention to close any company which can potentially be developed and reformed, even if it continues losses. As an example, spinning and weaving companies which recently lost EGP 3.25bn were still able to commence with reform and development.
The Ministry of Public Enterprise Sector owns 120 companies, of which 48 are incurring losses. These companies lost EGP 16bn in capital, in addition to EGP 44bn over the past few years, totalling EGP 60bn in losses, the minister noted.
“Most of the Public Enterprise Sector’s companies need completely new management systems,” Tawfik said, “Therefore, the ministry is going through three important steps, the first of which is to change the law in order for the shareholder to have the right to manage and to change heads of administration from outside the company, and representatives of companies have been reduced to one only.”
Tawfik revealed that his ministry has studied the development of 60 companies, with some companies found to be making a profit but not in the manner required. As a result, the decision was taken to develop them in order to achieve more profits.
He said that three companies have been closed so far, with only the National Cement Company closing in November 2018. The two other companies closed were the joint entity, the Egyptian Navigation Company and the Hadisolb.
As for the status of Iron & Steel Company, Tawfik said that the company had experienced decades of actual losses, reaching EGP 7.5bn over 23 years from fiscal year (FY) 1997/98 to FY 2019/20.
Nevertheless, the Central Auditing Organization estimated the real loss at about EGP 15.6bn during this period. This was financed from debts on mostly governmental bodies, some of which were from the Metallurgical Industries Holding Company with a value of EGP 3.4bn. This came in addition to debts to the Al-Nasr for Coke and Chemicals and others.
The value of Hadisolb’s debts amounted to EGP 9.5bn, of which EGP 1.2bn has been paid through land settlements. The company’s debt remains worth a total of EGP 8.2bn.
