On Saturday March 15th Egyptian doctors staged a demonstration outside their Cairo union offices calling for an average wage of 1200 Egyptian pounds (around £100 sterling). The current average figure stands at just 220 Egyptian pounds (£20).
However, the doctors have suspended a two-hour strike which was meant to take place in public hospitals from 9am to 11am on the morning of the 15th.
Hani Fawzi, of the Alexandria Syndicate Council, said however that "the strike has not been cancelled... It has been postponed until further discussion, which will happen at the usual general assembly which convenes on Friday 21 March."
Fawzi commented that the union delayed the strike due to a shift in the stance of the Minister of Health. The minister has pledged to increase the salaries of resident doctors and emergency and intensive care physicians from July 2008.
However, given the clamour in the union to assert its right to go on strike (which is to be disputed in the Constitutional Court), and the anger about low wages and price inflation in Hosni Mubarak's Egypt, further industrial action seems likely.
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