The ILO's Direct Communication Committee issued its report of 2018 on the employment situation in Egypt. The first part of the report included the committee's vision about the trade unions and labour elections’ law, held in Egypt in June 2018, taking into account the observations of international and local unions.
The committee stressed that all trade unions should have equal opportunities under the new trade union law and urges the government to ensure that all trade union organizations participate in the adoption of the law on trade union organizations, so that they become able to work freely and carry out their activities without interference. Moreover, it urges also to include those who wish to be members of trade union organizations without the violation of their acquired rights.
The committee noted that the implementation of the Trade Unions Law had a pervasive and disruptive attitude to the registration of the independent trade union organizations, which did not wish to be under the umbrella of the Egyptian General Workers' Union.
The committee also noted from the numerous contacts received from the trade union organizations a variety of concerns about the registration and election processes, including the exclusion of trade unions, which was precluded from the elections and prevented from any trade union activity, the large number of documents’ requests, the postponement of the registrations’ acceptance, and the delay in the issuance of the registration certificates. Thus, practicing any union activity is almost impossible, as well as, the refusal to register the trade union organizations when another trade union organization is present in the same establishment. In addition, the government excluded the election candidates from the process itself with additional complaints about pressure to participate in the Egyptian Workers' Union.
The report pointed out that many provisions of the law interfere with the right to form trade union organizations, to draw their constitution and rules, as well as, the election of their representatives in full freedom.
In the same context, the committee called upon the government to review each of these cases, taking into consideration the right of forming trade unions and to reduce the minimum membership required to form a trade union committee at the level of the establishment, which was established with 150 workers in order to guarantee the right of workers to participate in trade union organizations of their choice.
The committee also stressed that preventing workers from participating in more than one trade union organization should not be implemented, in case the worker is working in more than one job, in different workplaces, regretting that the prevention of the trade union organizations from benefiting from the technical cooperation programs and the activities granted by the international organizations of labour relations.
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