UNDERPAID WORKERS IN PUBLIC SECTORS: GIZA ZOO

Visiting the zoo used to cost fifty piasters, nowadays it costs three pounds. Despite the six times increase in tickets almost all the employees did not have a raise in their salary.

The zoo is one of the places low-income families can spend a fun day at. However, for most of the employees working there, the Giza zoo is a harsh working environment where they do not get paid enough and receive no benefits.

The Giza Zoo was once the most beautiful zoological gardens in Egypt; the Ministry of Agriculture in Egypt runs it. Over the past decade its status has been deteriorating more and more.

After the 25th of January movement in Egypt, many workers in the public sectors have been striking all over Egypt; among them were workers in the Giza zoo.

Workers in the zoo have been living in inequality for as long as they can remember, they work over hours, six-days-a-week, many of them even sleep over in the zoo gardens because they cannot afford public transportation.

Working conditions and Salaries:

As you enter the zoo, you realize that by every cage there is a man standing by it wearing a green overall with stains and holes all over it. Abdel Haleem Gomaa is one of them gatekeepers.

Gomaa has been working as a gatekeeper for 28 years in the zoo.

Unlike many is Gomaa is a satisfied worker, he works six days a week; he has six children and his salary amounts to 480 EGP.

Gomaa has been working with many animals over the years; he also started working with a salary of 150 EGP in the beginning. Later, the zoo administration promised to write him a contract to stabilize his working condition and to increase his monthly salary to 450 EGP a little over a year ago.

Mohamed ElSayed is a gatekeeper responsible for the camels; he has been working in the park for almost 19 years now.

ElSayed’s