A few hundred employees of the oldest national Egyptian bank, Misr Bank, gathered on Sunday at the main branch in downtown Cairo to call for the chairman to reverse his decisions to restructure the organisation and for his dismissal along with the board.
The employees started an online campaign titled Rebel (Tamarod) built on the spirit of the Rebel movement that called for nationwide protests that led to president Mohamed Morsi's ouster. It gathered momentum after board chairman Mohamed Kamal El-Din Barakat decided last Thursday to restrict job categories in a way that would slow down promotion eligibility and pay raises.
The decisions include employment restructuring, which affected the entire bank's hierarchy, an employee who asked to remain anonymous told Ahram Online.
After the bank closed Sunday afternoon, the employees, including some from other branches throughout Cairo, called for a spontaneous demonstration. Many chanted, holding banners that read "leave" and "invalid."
The protesting bank employees have also called for a strike and are planning to demonstrate on Monday at 9am in front of the bank building.
Mohamed Kamal El-Din Barakat, the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Misr Bank was appointed to his current position in September 2011 during Essam Sharaf cabinet and Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) rule. He was also elected as head of the Union of Arab Banks in April 2013.
