Employees of the Tanta Flax and Oils Company staged protests in front of the Egyptian Parliament building in downtown Cairo on Monday. A parliamentary manpower committee met to discuss the issue, which has had protesters conducting their sit-in for three weeks now

Protesters also called on President Hosni Mubarak to intervene personally to resolve the impasse

Workers complained that the government sold the public-sector company to a Saudi Arabian investor who subsequently sacked them all without notice

Parliament, witnessed a heated debate over the issue, with Muslim Brotherhood opposition MP Yousri Bayoumi and ND MP Ahmed Shobeir trading insults before engaging in a fistfight.