By: Masaar – Technology & Law Community
Conceptualized and commissioned by Access to Knowledge for Development for the Fairwork project, in collaboration with the Oxford Internet Institute and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Constitutional Framework of the Right to Organize
Chapter three – on Public Freedoms, Rights and Duties – of the Egyptian Constitution issued in 2014 included a text on the right to organize trade unions and to establish syndicates and federations in general.1 The Constitution also included some rules on the establishment and organization of trade unions, which differentiate between professional syndicates and trade unions. With regards to professional syndicates, some professions may not be practiced without being a member of the syndicate thereof, such as the Medical and Engineers Syndicates and the Bar Association. The constitution stipulates the organizational mechanisms of such professions, where only one syndicate may be established to organize the same profession.2
In application of the constitutional right, the Parliament issued Law No. 213 of 2017 on Trade Union Organizations and the Protection of the Right to Organize to replace the previous Trade Unions Law No. 35 of 1976. The new Trade Union Law authorized the Minister of Manpower to issue the executive regulations of such law and the regulatory decisions related to the application thereof.3
The Law on Trade Union Organizations comprises ten chapters. The first five cover definitions, general provisions, the establishment of trade union organizations, their objectives, membership, and formations. Chapters Five and Six regulate candidacy and election conditions, as well as the rights and guarantees for practicing union work. The chapters seven to nine regulate the resources and funds of trade union organizations, as well as their exemptions, privileges, and basic and financial regulations. The last one, chapter 10, focuses on crimes and penalties thereof.
Most Significant Amendments to the Law on Trade Union Organizations and the Protection of the Right to Organize
The most significant amendments to the Law on Trade Union Organizations include its approval of the right to establish trade unions as of notification. As stipulated in Article 10 thereof, the legal personality of the trade union shall be registered as of the date of submitting the required documents to the competent administrative authority. The union may freely exercise its rights as of the registration. The administrative or any other authority shall not have the right to stop the Union’s work; however, it may only resort to a Labor Court to raise an objection. The filing of a lawsuit shall not prejudice the union’s right to carry out its work except after a court ruling is issued.
Although the law is recent, it was widely criticized, particularly the articles of Chapter Two on the establishment of trade union organizations, and what it stipulates regarding the minimum number of workers necessary to establish a trade union, as well as the articles of Chapter Ten stipulating custodial penalties including imprisonment. In view of these criticisms and subsequent recommendations to amend the law, the House of Representatives issued Law No. 142 of 2019 amending some articles of the Law.
The said amendments aimed at addressing the criticisms of the Law. They modified the minimum required number of workers to establish a trade union organization or professional committee at the city or governorate level from one hundred and fifty to fifty workers. They further stipulated that in order to establish a public trade union, there have to be at least ten trade union committees, each having at least fifteen thousand workers as members; as opposed to the previous fifteen committees, each having twenty thousand members. Moreover, in order to establish a labor federation, there have to be at least seven public syndicates comprising one hundred and fifty thousand members; contrary to the ten syndicates comprising two hundred thousand members stipulated in the previous law.
The aforementioned custodial penalties, stipulated in Chapter Ten, have been abolished. Some of which have been replaced by financial penalties, the amount of which varies between five thousand to two hundred thousand pounds. Other penalties have been completely abolished; the crime and the penalty have been removed, on top of which was the provision of Article 69. It stipulated an imprisonment sentence for whoever establishes or forms a trade union organization in contradiction to the provisions of the law.
Despite the latest amendments, which are a step forward in the issue of trade union organizations, there are still other challenges related to the application of the articles thereof. On top of such challenges is the procedural aspect of establishing trade union organizations, and the limits and powers of the executive authority represented in competent administrative authorities referred to by the Law. Sometimes such authorities refuse to receive and file the incorporation documents, which is a violation of the Law. The Law grants the authorities the right to notify the legal representative of the organization if any of the necessary documents for incorporation are incorrect or incomplete within thirty days of the deposit. It further grants the right to resort to Labor Courts in case the organization does not abide by what is sent in the notification. Such a case shall be considered an unjustified suspension of the establishment and incorporation of trade union organizations, in spite of the law stipulating that the legal personality of the trade union shall be registered as of the date of submitting the required documents to the competent administrative authority, and the union may freely exercise its rights as of filing.
Law Effects on Self-Employment
The exercise of the right to organize seems difficult for self-employed individuals who work for themselves or for a third party. Self-employment, in its nature, is individual, temporary or incidental work that is not subject to a certain law regulating it as a profession. Thus, it is not possible to establish a trade union committee on the level of an establishment, but rather a professional trade union committee at the city or governorate level. This requires the agreement of at least fifty self-employed workers who fulfill the membership conditions and who work in similar, connected or joint industries. They shall establish a trade union organization to defend their rights and protect their professional interests. However, challenges related to the executive authority’s understanding of developments on self-employment may stand in the way of ensuring the existence of union representation for self-employed workers.
1.Article 76 of the valid Egyptian Constitution issued in 2014 stipulates, “The establishment of federations and syndicates on a democratic basis is a right guaranteed by law. Such federations and syndicates will possess legal personality, be able to practice their activities freely, contribute to improving the skills of their members, defend their rights and protect their interests. The state guarantees the independence of all federations and syndicates. The boards of directors thereof may only be dissolved by a judicial ruling. Syndicates may not be established within governmental bodies.”
2. Article 77 of the effective Egyptian Constitution issued in 2014 stipulates, “The law shall regulate the establishment and administration of professional syndicates on a democratic basis, guarantee their independence, and specify their resources and the way members are recorded and held accountable for their behavior while performing their professional activities, according to ethical codes of moral and professional conduct. No profession may establish more than one syndicate. Receivership may not be imposed nor may administrative bodies intervene in the affairs of such syndicates, and their boards of directors may only be dissolved by a judicial ruling. All legislation pertaining to a given profession shall be submitted to the relevant syndicate for consultation.”
3. The executive regulation of Trade Union Organizations Law was issued as per the decision of the Minister of Manpower No. 35 of 2018, published in the Official Gazette issue no. 61 , published on the 14th of March, 2018.
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