Drop Charges; Change Laws that Restrict Right to Organize, Strike
Since May 2016, police have arrested scores of striking workers from
various industries. Most were later released, but prosecutors have
referred dozens for trial, including some before a military court.
“Arresting workers for striking is another example of how Egyptian
authorities are determined to stifle all space for peaceful
mobilization,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
In January 2017, prosecutors charged 19 striking workers at an oil
products factory in Suez with inciting a strike and halting production,
though all were acquitted in a trial later that month. In December 2016,
security forces arrested at least 55 striking workers at the Egyptian
Fertilizers Company, and prosecutors summoned eight for investigation.
On September 26, Kamal Abbas, a member of the government-sponsored
National Council for Human Rights and head of the independent Center for
Trade Union and Workers’ Services (CTUWS), wrote to the Interior
Ministry regarding the National Security Agency’s “disappearance” of six workers
from the Public Transport Authority following raids on their homes two
days earlier.
On September 28, following a news conference by families
of the missing workers, the six workers appeared before prosecutors who
accused them of belonging to an unidentified banned group.
In May,
military prosecutors referred 26 Alexandria Shipyard Company workers to a
military court on charges of inciting strikes.
The January strike in Suez followed a sit-in at the privately owned
IFFCO oil products factory in the last week of December seeking an equal
distribution of bonuses between workers and supervisors. The workers
decided to strike after Interior Ministry officers arrested two members of the IFFCO Independent Workers’ Union who had been participating in the sit-in, according to a workers’ statement published in local newspapers.
The CTUWS said that National Security officers demanded that union
leaders end the strike and then police arrested 13 striking workers on
January 2. Prosecutors summoned another 10 for questioning on the same
day and referred 19 to a minor offenses court on charges of inciting a
strike, halting production, and sabotaging factory properties.
Though
the court acquitted the workers, the factory administration can appeal
the decision. Activists told Human Rights Watch that, according to
workers, 26 people were later fired, including the 19 who were
acquitted.
Union leaders at the IFFCO factory demanded a larger share of bonuses
after the prices of everyday goods in Egypt rose dramatically when the
government floated the Egyptian pound in early November, a requirement
for a US$12 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan package.
Since then, the pound has lost more than 100 percent of its value, and
the IMF has estimated that inflation will rise to 18 percent.
Egyptian authorities greatly restrict the ability of workers to
mobilize independently, and the penal code criminalizes strikes and
workplace sit-ins in articles 124 and 125, with sentences of up to two
years, despite several administrative court rulings that have upheld the
right to strike.
Kamal Abbas, the CTUWS leader, told Human Rights Watch that the
government-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) sent a
letter to the administration of the Suez oil products factory saying
that the independent workers’ union, which had signed two collective
bargaining agreements with administrators in 2012 and 2015, was illegal.
The IFFCO Independent Workers’ Union could be shut down as a result.
The government has never legalized the independent labor unions that
proliferated after the 2011 uprising, while officially recognized
unions have not held elections for 11 years, and successive governments
have appointed union leaders, most recently in January.
In June, an administrative court sent the current, restrictive 1976
law on unions for review, stating that “the [ETUF] was not capable of
expressing workers’ grievances and hopes whether before the state or
business owners.” To Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, the Supreme
Constitutional Court has yet to take up the case.
In April 2016, Human Rights Watch called on the Egyptian authorities to legalize independent unions
and criticized a draft law that would dissolve independent unions and
restrict workers’ rights. The cabinet approved a modified draft in July
and sent it to parliament
on January 25. The current draft would not recognize existing
independent unions and would impose prison sentences for establishing
unions that do not follow the new law.
The sharp devaluation of the Egyptian pound also led to strikes in
November and December at two privately owned fertilizer companies in the
Suez governorate, Egyptian Fertilizers Company and the Egyptian Basic
Industries Corporation, the independent news website Mada Masr reported.
Police dawn raids ended both sit-ins, and police rounded up at least 55
workers, one worker participating in the sit-in told Human Rights
Watch. Central Security Force riot police put the arrested workers
inside vans and dropped them in a deserted area three hours later, the
worker said.
Prosecutors detained two for several weeks
before releasing them on bail, and the factory administration dismissed
six with no explanation, the worker said. The two factories have no
unions.
A representative for the Egyptian Fertilizers Company told Human
Rights Watch that police tried for 10 days to convince workers occupying
control rooms to leave before “very peacefully” ending the sit-in.
The
workers returned to work the following morning. He said that halting
production was a crime and acknowledged that prosecutors summoned
several workers, but said the administration had not made complaints
against them during the investigations. Workers denied the
administration’s allegations that they stopped the production or
occupied the control room.
Dawn raids also led to the arrest of six Public Transport Authority
workers from their homes in Cairo on September 24, ahead of a planned
strike demanding bonuses. Authorities did not acknowledge their
whereabouts for four days, CTUWS leader Kamal Abbas told Human Rights
Watch, adding that lawyers had not been allowed to obtain a copy of
prosecution documents as required by law.
Prosecutors accused the six of
joining a banned group that prosecutors did not identify, inciting
strikes, and disturbing public order, pro-government news websites
reported. Two of the workers remain in pretrial detention, while
authorities released four pending investigation.
Egypt’s military has also suppressed workers’ actions. In
Alexandria, 26 workers of the military-owned Alexandria Shipyard Company
have been on trial before a military court since June 21, 2016. A report by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights
(ECESR) said the workers had organized a brief protest inside the
company’s premises on May 23 and 24, to demand bonuses, promotions, and
safety equipment and tried to negotiate with General Abd al-Hamid
Essmat, the company’s executive.
On May 25, military prosecutors ordered 13 workers held pending
investigation. One, a woman, was released on bail. Thirteen others were
arrested weeks later. Fatma Ramadan, the head of an independent union
and a workers’ rights researcher, told Human Rights Watch that military prosecutors relied entirely on a memo from the company
to charge the workers with inciting strikes and abstaining from work.
Human Rights Watch was not able to review the memo. After several days,
the company allowed 1,100 of 2,800 workers to return, the ECESR said.
The shipyard administration told workers they would be released if
they resigned, said Abbas and an ECESR lawyer. All the prosecuted
workers resigned and were released on bail in groups in October, November, and December, but they still face trial.
Military prosecutors referred the striking workers to military court
under the Military Code of Justice, which covers civilian workers in
military-owned institutions and does not establish any workers’ rights.
The current draft unions law would not change this.
Egypt’s constitution grants freedom of association and the right to
strike. Egypt is a state party to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 8 of which establishes the right to strike,
as well as the right to form and join trade unions and national and
international confederations. Egypt is also a member of the
International Labour Organization and has ratified its eight fundamental conventions.
Parliament should ensure that the draft union law under
consideration meets Egypt’s obligations under international human rights
law by allowing free and fair union elections and ensuring
straightforward legalization procedures for all existing independent
unions. Civilian workers in military institutions should be allowed
association rights and should never be tried before military courts.
Human Rights Watch wrote to IFFCO, the Public Transport Authority,
and the Alexandria Shipyard Company, regarding the incidents but
received no responses.
“Instead of arresting and prosecuting workers, the government should
amend its laws to guarantee workers’ rights to effective bargaining and
mobilization which are essential to effective economic reform,” Stork
said.
More than 2,000 workers at the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in
the Nile Delta City of Mahalla initiated a partial strike on Tuesday,
and warned of a comprehensive strike starting on Wednesday which could
potentially involve all of the company’s factories and nearly 17,000
workers.
The strike has affected five factories within the
state-owned company, accounting for approximately one fifth of its
productive capacity. Workers at the company, which is Egypt’s largest
textile mill, are demanding the payment of overdue bonuses and
augmented food allowances in light of increasing inflation rates and the recent implementation of austerity measures.
They
announced that they will launch a comprehensive strike across all of
the company’s Mahalla factories within two days if their demands are not
met.
One of the striking workers, who wished to remain anonymous,
told Mada Masr that the strike began in a factory manufacturing bed
sheets, which is primarily operated by female workers.
They said,
“We are all demanding that our incomes be augmented in line with the
constantly rising cost of living, and that our basic wages be increased
so that we are able to cope with the new austerity policies.”
Despite being a state-owned company, Misr Spinning and Weaving Company workers are not granted the national monthly minimum wage of LE1,200 allocated to public sector employees.
On
average, their total wages range between LE900 per month for recently
employed workers, to approximately LE3,000 for the most senior manual
workers.
“Even this monthly minimum wage is insufficient to
provide for workers and their families these days. A minimum basic
monthly wage of LE1,500, in addition to bonuses, would be a good
starting point so that workers can make ends meet” the worker lamented.
The strikers are demanding the payment of an overdue 10 percent annual “social bonus,” authorized by the Finance Ministry in 2015, calculated based on a workers basic wage.
They
are also lobbying for their daily food allowance to be increased from
LE7 to LE10, and for monthly bonuses of LE220 to be included in basic
wage calculations, rather than being issued separately as a bonus
payment. The worker said that those on strike believe this is in keeping
with rising prices, proposing a higher allowance of LE20.
Other
demands raised include the re-operation of several stalled factories and
production lines within the company, the reinstatement of punitively
sacked workers and the recall of the local trade union committee.
The
company’s employees have been attempting to recall the union committee
and replace it with an independent union since December 2006.
According
to the textile worker, “This union doesn’t represent us. It represents
the company’s management. It always aligns itself with the management’s
policies, and always follows the stances adopted by the Textile Holding
Company.”
The Textile Holding Company is the state’s umbrella
company, responsible for administering 32 affiliated textile companies
nationwide.
The independent Center for Trade Union and Workers’ Services issued a statement on Tuesday calling on security forces not to take punitive actions against Mahalla’s textile workers for exercising their constitutional right to strike, stipulated in Constitutional Article 15. In recent months strikes at several other companies have been met with a security crackdown.
Electricity prices set to double over five years in attempt to revive economy battered by political turmoil
Saturday July 5, 2014
Egypt
will start raising petrol prices by up to 78% from midnight on Friday,
an oil ministry source told Reuters, as it tries to cut energy subsidies
to ease the burden on its swelling budget deficit.
"The increase will start being implemented by midnight," the source said.
Food
and energy subsidies traditionally eat up a quarter of state spending
and the government is taking steps to reform its subsidy programme and
revive an economy that has been battered by more than three years of
political turmoil.
The source said the price of 92-octane petrol
would be 2.60 Egyptian pounds (21p) a litre, up 40% from its current
price of 1.85 pounds, while 80-octane petrol would rise to 1.60 pounds a
litre, up 78%
Diesel will rise to 1.80 pounds a litre, an
increase of 63%, while the less commonly used natural gas for vehicles
will rise by 175% to 1.10 pounds a cubic metre.
The newly elected
president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, has already raised electricity prices in
his efforts to reform energy subsidies, one of a range of politically
sensitive subsidies that also cover transport, food and agriculture.
Electricity
prices began to rise this month under a plan to eliminate power
subsidies within five years, the electricity minister said on Thursday.
Electricity
prices are set to double over five years, but the introduction of a
more graduated pricing structure aims to reduce the burden on the poor
in a country where one person in four lives on less than $2 a day.
State
finances have been decimated by more than three years of political
turmoil, but the government is trying to improve them without provoking a
backlash from Egyptians, who have helped topple two presidents since
2011 but have yet to see an improvement in living standards.
