ILO tells Egypt to stop repressing independent labor unions

Mada Masr
ILO to Egypt: Stop repressing independent trade unions

Monday, April 11, 2016

Jano Charbel 

The United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) issued a statement Friday criticizing Egypt’s ongoing repression of independent trade unions and workers’ freedom of association.

The ILO also lambasted the Egyptian authorities for their handling of investigations into the torture and murder of Italian PhD candidate Giulio Regeni, who was in Egypt researching and writing on the condition of the local independent labor movement prior to his death.

In a message directed at President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ILO Director General Guy Ryder “expressed concern over threats to human and trade union rights in Egypt,” while calling for clear answers regarding Regeni’s brutal death.

Ryder also criticized the Egyptian government’s recent violations against independent unions, including restrictions on the publication of official documents, prohibiting their participation in collective bargaining and subjecting independent union organizers to the risk of layoffs, and even arrests.

“I wish to stress that it is the responsibility of the [Egyptian] government to ensure the application of the international labor conventions on freedom of association that it has freely ratified, and which must be respected by all state authorities,” Ryder argued.

But officials from the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) dismissively responded to the ILO’s criticisms.

The ILO statement “represents an unwarranted interference in Egypt’s affairs,” said ETUF President Gebali al-Maraghi, the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm reported Sunday.

Maraghi further called for “the issuing of an official statement to condemn this intervention into the affairs of Egypt, or any other Arab state.”

As the UN’s labor agency, the ILO is officially entrusted with overseeing the implementation of international labor conventions that world states have voluntarily ratified. According to Ryder, these conventions are persistently violated in Egypt.

The ILO was established in 1919 — more than two decades prior to the establishment of the UN — and Egypt joined in 1936. Since then, Egypt has voluntarily ratified several of its conventions.

However, Friday’s statement claimed that not only does the Egyptian state fail to enforce the conventions, but appears to actively violate them.

Ryder pointed to the ILO conventions on freedom of association (Convention 87) and the right to organize (Convention 98), both ratified by Egypt in the 1950s.

The current administration’s recent actions against Egypt’s independent trade unions include a lawsuit filed before an administrative court to outlaw and dissolve independent unions and federations, legislative threats against basic union rights from ETUF representatives in Parliament, and the appointment of the new Minister of Manpower Mohamed Saafan, a senior ETUF chief who largely opposes the organizational freedoms of unions.

Critics also highlight the absence of ETUF elections, which are overdue since 2011, Sisi’s presidential decree to extend the ETUF leadership’s term of office, and the appointment of ETUF chiefs by the ministers of manpower for the past five years.

“For several years, the International Labor Organization has been calling upon the government to end discrepancies between existing national legislation, in particular as regards the Trade Union Act No. 35 of 1976, and ILO Conventions 87 and 98,” Ryder said.

In contravention to ILO Conventions 87 and 98, Egypt’s trade union law recognizes the existence of only one trade union federation — the ETUF — and holds that all labor unions must affiliate themselves to this state-controlled entity.

The ETUF has held a complete monopoly over the trade union movement since its formation in 1957. However, since the 2011 uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak, independent trade union federations have emerged to challenge its unilateral control.

Several bills have been presented since 2011 to replace the trade union law which would recognize independent unions and federations. However, they have repeatedly been shelved by consecutive governments, and the old union law still remains in effect. 

“Since the International Labor Conference of 2008, requests have been made to [Egypt] to adopt a new trade union law in order to ensure full respect for freedom of association rights,” the ILO statement said.

Since 2008, the ILO had repeatedly placed Egypt on its shortlist of states which violate the organization’s conventions.

“The government of Egypt has committed that all trade unions in the country, including the independent trade unions, would be able to exercise their activities and elect their officers in full freedom in accordance with Egypt’s international obligations according to ILO Convention 87, pending the adoption of a new freedom of association law,” the ILO statement pointed out.

However, ETUF parliamentarians and the new minister of manpower appear to remain adamant on retaining those provisions of the trade union law that stipulate the state-controlled federation’s grip over the labor movement.

The ILO also referred to a previous statement issued by its governing body in March, entitled, “The Threat to Human and Trade Union Rights in Egypt.” The statement referred to “systematic attacks” by the Ministry of Manpower “against independent trade union organizations.”

The March statement then “expressed outrage about the death of Giulio Regeni,” who was researching trade unions and freedom of association in Egypt before he went missing on January 25, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution.His dead body was found on February 3, bearing signs of torture.

The ILO Workers’ Group earlier called for an independent inquiry into Regeni’s torture and murder. However, Egyptian authorities have continued to withhold vital information and communications from Italian prosecutors and investigators.

The ILO’s director general issued an emphatic call for the Egyptian government to “expeditiously clarify all the facts surrounding the death of Mr. Regeni.”

In mid-February, the ETUF issued a statement expressing its “great sorrow for the killing of the Italian student.”

However, the ETUF statement also dismissed claims that Egyptian security forces may have been implicated in Regeni’s disappearance and death.

“ETUF refuses this harsh attack against Egypt conducted by foreign organizations supported by illegal organizations in Egypt, that try to manipulate the event to disseminate their poisons to attack stability in Egypt,” the statement said.

“ETUF is stressing that Egyptian workers are fully aware of the plots against their country conducted by foreign or local plotters,” it concluded. “We Egyptian workers are one front against any illegal organizations' plots.”

*Photo courtesy of Libcom.

Egypt's Manpower Ministry returns to grip of state-run union federation

Mada Masr
Manpower Ministry returns to grip of state-run union federation

Monday, April 4, 2016

Jano Charbel

 

The Egyptian government returned control of the Ministry of Manpower to the highly contentious state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) on Monday, reversing progress made in labor rights since the 2011 revolution.

In the government’s recent Cabinet reshuffle, 57-year-old Mohamed Saafan, formerly vice president of the ETUF and president of its General Union of Petroleum Workers, replaced Gamal Sorour as minister of manpower. The appointment comes at a critical time, as Egypt’s independent trade unions are coming under fire from ETUF representatives in parliament, along with a lawsuit calling for their dissolution and criminalization.

From March 2011 to March 2016, the ministers of manpower were appointed from among the ranks of technocrats, independent union organizers and senior officials in the ministry. The last elections within the ETUF were held in late 2006, and they have been repeatedly postponed since 2011, when they were due to take place.

In May 2015, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a decree extending the terms of office for unelected ETUF officials by one year. Since 2011, the ministers of manpower have personally appointed the ETUF's top leaders.

The link between the ETUF and the Ministry of Manpower has often been described as a sort of umbilical relationship that dates back to the ETUF’s establishment in 1957. This link appears to have been re-established with the appointment of Saafan.

A recent post on the ETUF’s website congratulates Saafan on his ministerial post, thanking President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for appointing him. “The ministry has returned to its rightful owners,” it says.
Saafan has issued media statements since his appointment, outlining his ambitious plans and goals for the Ministry of Manpower.

“This next phase will involve several laws … including the new labor law, which we need to actualise in order to reach a balance between both parties in the production process – workers and employers," Safaan said in a televised interview with the privately-owned LTC satellite channel on March 26.

Unemployment, which is officially at around 13 percent (although the real unemployment rate may be significantly higher), is another major issue Safaan plans to address. “We need to cooperate with each other during this upcoming phase in order to propose ideas with which to swiftly resolve this problem, and to address it on a long-term basis. This problem affects the entire Egyptian population and continues to grow,” he said.

Other issues Safaan says he intends to focus on are the stalling of production lines and closures related to Egypt’s struggling textile industry.

But Saafan’s appointment has alarmed many labor activists and independent trade unionists.

Karim Reda, who was fired from the state-owned gas services and billing company Petrotrade, tells Mada Masr, “Saafan is the ruling regime’s man of choice, and I expect the worst violations of labor rights to be perpetrated while he presides over the ministry.”

“He will likely interfere in the drafting of new labor legislation, and will do so against the interests of independent unions, against the right to freely organize, and in violation of the right to strike,” Reda adds.

Saafan, according to Reda, is likely to issue amendments to the civil service law, which he says will only serve the interests of the state and not those of civil servants. He would also, Reda believes, prioritize the rights of businessmen in making amendments to the unified labor law and seek to maintain the ETUF as the only legally recognized trade union federation in Egypt, as stipulated by trade union law.

Indeed, according to a posting on the General Union for Petroleum Workers’ website last Monday, the new minister of manpower has reportedly refused to meet with a delegation of independent trade unionists at the ministry’s headquarters, as Saafan doesn’t recognize labor unions that are not affiliated with the ETUF.

Trade union law stipulates that all labor unions must affiliate themselves with the ETUF, giving them a monopoly over all trade union activity in Egypt.

Several draft amendments to the law have been made since 2011, pushing for the recognition of independent unions and federations in keeping with international legislation, which the Egypt has ratified since the 1950s. But the drafts have never seen the light.

The ratification of such legislation is in the hands of Parliament, not the minister of manpower, according to Niazi Mostafa, a lawyer and former member of the Legislative Committee at the ministry. He explains that a draft labor law was prepared under Safaan’s predecessor and sent to parliament for review. “However, it is being redrafted in light of reservations from businessmen's associations,” Mostafa adds.

Saafan “is supposed to shed all his prior allegiances upon accepting this ministerial post. The minister is expected to address the needs of workers regardless of their unions, or their politics,” Mostafa argues, adding, “The policies of the new minister have yet to be assessed.”

Others, like Hoda Kamel, an independent union organizer and member of the campaign “Toward a just labor law,” don’t see Saafan’s appointment holding much hope for labor legislation. “In terms of the labor law, we have to wait and see what amendments he makes, but we’re not expecting any genuine labor gains — in terms of rights or freedoms — during his tenure,” she says, referring to Saafan’s decision to openly side against striking workers at petroleum companies.

As president of the General Union for Petroleum Workers, Saafan issued three statements against the most recent Petrotrade strike, which lasted 45 days — from December 2015 to February 2016. He “claimed our strike was instigated by revolutionary groups, and that we were seeking the downfall of the state. He also claimed we were striking despite earning LE9,000 a month. In fact we earn just LE2,500 a month, on average. All his claims against us are baseless.”

Saafan has also been actively involved in acts of union busting, particularly in relation to the establishment of a local trade union committee for employees at the state-owned Enppi and Mansoura Petroleum Companies, as documented by privately owned newspapers Youm7, Al-Masry Al-Youm, and other outlets.

Choosing to conceal his identity out of fear of retaliation, a worker from the Mansoura Petroleum Company tells Mada Masr, “We’ve been trying for nearly four years to establish a union at the company, but both the company’s administration and the General Union of Petroleum Workers have been resisting, even though we had sought to establish our union under the ETUF’s umbrella.”

Protesting petroleum workers have rarely been able to meet with Saafan. “He’s not one to resolve workers’ grievances,” Reda says. “In fact, he usually ignores our work-related demands.”

*Photo by Jano Charbel