Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will receive a number of doctors' union representatives Saturday to discuss their grievances in light of their threat to stage an open-ended strike starting 1 October.

On Friday the doctors' union agreed to hold an open-ended strike, which will exclude emergency medical treatment and some other key areas until their demands relating to pay and working conditions are met.

The main demands include a minimum wage for medical practitioners of LE 3,000 per month ($500), since some doctors working in state institutions only earn LE100-LE200 ($15-30) per month, which means almost every doctor necessarily has a private practice.

They also demand security guards inside hospitals, considering emergency rooms are seeing more violence. The state budget for healthcare should also be increased to 15 per cent instead of the current allocation which is around five per cent. They also want the state to immediately establish a doctors' cadre with a proper system for pay scales and promotions.

Doctors' unions carried out two nation-wide strikes in May and September 2011, but the doctors did not achieve their demands in negotiations with authorities.

Egypt in recent years has witnessed an increase in labour strikes, especially after the January 25 Revolution ousted president Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011. Labour grievances and mass strikes are actually believed to have played an important role in the buildup to Egypt's revolution.