The new Parliament, which convened for the
first time in January, is reviewing several pieces of legislation that
could adversely affect the country’s workforce.
With only a handful of labor representatives — all of whom were executively appointed to the state-controlled
Egyptian Trade Union Federation
(ETUF) — the Parliament is the first legislative body in over 50 years
to have been elected without the 50 percent quota allotted to workers’
and farmers’ representatives.
The
2014 Constitution scrapped a
1964 constitutional provision allocating at least half of parliamentary seats to representatives of the labor force.
The
resulting legislature has been received with sharp censure by workers,
labor activists and independent union leaders alike. The highly
contentious civil service law — the only presidential decree to be shot
down by the new Parliament — as well as the unified labor law and the
trade union law are among several pieces of legislation being redrafted
by an 11-member Manpower Committee.
But the lack of independent labor
representation has many more than skeptical about the products of the
committee’s efforts, and those of the Parliament more broadly.
For Talal Shokr of the independent
Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services,
there is no genuine labor representation in Parliament. Instead, the
five ETUF unionists who secured parliamentary seats — and who are
concentrated in the 11-member Manpower Committee — won their seats on
the
For the Love of Egypt list — a staunchly pro-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi coalition — rather than being elected as individual candidates.
“These
MPs from ETUF are following in the state’s footsteps, as they have for
decades,” Shokr argues. “There is not a single MP from the independent
trade union movement.”
Egypt’s independent trade unions began to
emerge in 2009 as an alternative to ETUF, which had acted as the only
legally recognized trade union federation since its establishment in
1957.
The new Parliament is not a real one, argues Kamal
al-Fayoumy, a worker from the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company, but a
“large council of yes-men … a tool in the executive authorities’ hands.”
He alludes to Parliament’s approval of 340 presidential decrees — from a
total of
341 such laws issued in the absence of Parliament — in a period of just 15 days.
“Have
you ever seen a Parliament approving every single law, out of hundreds
of laws, issued by the president in such a short period of time?”
Fayoumy asks.
The highly contentious
civil service law was the
only law that Parliament rejected, with nearly 68 percent of MPs voting it down.
Civil servants held several
strikes and large protests
in 2015 against the decree, arguing that it imposed caps on their
bonuses and wages and thus kept their incomes flat in the face of
inflation, while simultaneously empowering their administrators with
sweeping managerial powers over employees.
Protesting civil
servants also argued that the presidency issued the decree unilaterally
without consulting them or their trade unions. Even ETUF representatives
in Parliament explained that the presidency did not consult with them
while the civil service law was being formulated.
ETUF President
and member of Parliament (MP) Gebali al-Maraghi said in an interview on
the Sada al-Balad satellite channel that he approves of Sisi's plans for
administrative reform of the public sector, but objects to the
presidential decree, as its drafting involved "no consultation with
civil society, or ETUF."
Maraghi added that without
consultations, “conspirators and saboteurs” infiltrated and mislead the
ranks of the workforce, then he reiterated that ETUF is “against all
protests, and all strikes.”
Another ETUF MP, Solaf Darwish, told
the privately owned news site Youm7 that she rejected the civil service
law since it would “harm 6 million families,” and because it could lead
to a countrywide explosion of protests and strikes.
Most of the 11 members of Parliament’s Manpower Committee are reported to have rejected the civil service law. However,
Parliament's voting roster for January 20 indicated that
three out of five ETUF MPs voted for its approval
in private, even though they opposed the law in public and in
statements to media outlets. Maraghi, Darwish and one other ETUF leader,
Gamal Oqabi, reportedly voted for the law in the end.
The
Manpower Committee is currently said to be involved in redrafting the
civil service law. Maraghi claimed there are 12 articles the committee
asked the presidency to amend before they would approve it.
The Manpower Committee is set to also redraft the unified labor law.
But Hoda Kamel, an independent union organizer and member of the grassroots campaign
Toward a Just Labor Law,
stresses that the Manpower Ministry and Parliament alike have largely
excluded independent unions from participation in the redrafting
process, while allowing businessmen and their associations to make
amendments in order to protect their interests.
“The drafts of the
unified labor law I’ve seen include virtually no protection for
precarious laborers, few contractual safeguards and decreased rights for
trade unions in negotiations with the state or employers,” Kamel adds.
Several
local media outlets reported
that the Federation of Egyptian Industries, along with other
businessmen’s associations and chambers of commerce, have formed a lobby
to reject recent drafts of the labor law as formulated by the Ministry
of Manpower. Business federations complained that the ministry’s initial
drafts include provisions that would frighten investors and discourage
investment in Egypt.
According to independent union organizer
Fatma Ramadan, “The new provisions found in several of the existing
drafts [of the labor law] may negatively impact workers’ total wages.
These drafts have linked workers’ wages to production, even if
production is on the decline due to administrative policies.”
The
drafts Ramadan has read of the law “facilitate punitive sackings of
worker, and stipulate they may be sacked for exercising their right to
strike, or for not abiding by administrators’ policies,” she says.
“Unions’ collective bargaining powers have been weakened, while
employers have been empowered to determine their own labor policies
without workers’ involvement.”
Another law on the Manpower
Committee’s agenda is the highly polarizing trade union law. This law,
and its precursors since 1957, guaranteed ETUF a legally binding
monopoly over the trade union movement. Further, the law does not
recognize the existence of unions or federations organized outside
ETUF’s structure.
Through the Manpower Committee as well as the
judiciary, ETUF has launched a campaign in hopes of outlawing
independent trade unions or federations across the country. ETUF leaders
filed a formal
complaint at a Cairo police station in late January, while also filing a
lawsuit before the Cairo Administrative Court. The first hearing took place on February 7.
The
trial was adjourned until March 13 to allow ETUF to present documents
regarding its last elections, held in 2006. ETUF elections have been
overdue since 2011, and its leaders have been appointed by the Ministry
of Manpower over the past five years.
In May 2015, Sisi issued a
presidential decree extending the terms of office for ETUF’s leadership by another year.
According to
ETUF’s website, its leaders describe independent unions as “
illegitimate and illegal,” as well as “
a threat to national security.” Moreover, ETUF leaders claim that independent unions serve to divide and weaken the unity of the trade union movement.
ETUF MP Mohamed Wahballah spoke of the Manpower Committee’s plans for the new trade union law, telling
local media outlets:
“The bill being prepared will determine the necessary conditions for
the establishment of trade unions, and must be applicable to all
unions.”
“ETUF representatives in Parliament simply want to
maintain a monopoly over Egypt’s trade unions,” Shokr argues, “while
they vote against basic labor rights and freedoms — even in violation of
existing International Labor Organization [ILO] legislation. Their
loyalty is not to the working class, but to the ruling regimes that keep
them in power.”
Fayoumy concurs. “They [ETUF and the Manpower
Committee] may try their best to limit the presence of independent
unions, but the Constitution, along with international conventions that
the Egyptian state has ratified over the past decades, safeguard the
right to establish unions independently of state control.”
Fayoumy
and Shokr refer to constitutional Article 76, which stipulates “the
right to establish syndicates and unions on a democratic basis,” and
also guarantees their independence.
They also point to the ILO's
Convention 87 and
Convention 98, which guarantee employees the right to form unions of their choosing.
Egypt
voluntarily ratified both ILO Conventions in 1957 and 1954,
respectively, but to this day has still not brought its domestic
legislation in-line with these international agreements.
Under the
auspices of then-minister Ahmed al-Borai, in 2011 the Manpower Ministry
presided over the formulation of a bill recognizing the existence of
independent trade unions. However, the bill was repeatedly shelved by
the consecutive governments of the past five years.
Other laws
expected to be reviewed and redrafted by the Manpower Committee in
coordination with Parliament’s Health Affairs Committee include the
national health insurance law and the social insurance law.
The
Doctors Syndicate rejected
the latest draft of the health insurance law, arguing that it deprives
lower-income demographics of access to affordable medical care, while
largely benefiting insurance companies.
As for the social insurance law, fewer details have emerged as to the state’s plans to amend existing legislation.
But Ramadan isn’t hopeful, saying, “I don’t expect anything positive or progressive to come out of this Parliament.”
