Independent trade unions experiment a real battle to regulate their status.. We call for stopping all the coercive measures taken Without any legal or practical support

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Thursday, April 12, 2018 - 14:44

Independent trade unions experiment a real battle to regulate their status

We call for stopping all the coercive measures taken

Without any legal or practical support

It has been twenty eight days now since the process of legal readjustment for trade unions begun with very few trade unions succeeding to obtain a certificate from the responsible administrative body that they have readjusted their status according to the provisions of the Law.  Some organizations are still in the process of preparing the important amount of requested documents for applying,while others are running between various offices and the Ministry of Labor Force as well as other authorities spending thus tremendous and exhausting efforts in order to surmount the obvious arbitrariness of the employees in charge of receiving the files from the applicants.

Actually, the first week out of the sixty days of deadline for the adjustment of status was lost in waiting the directives of the Ministry considered by employees in the administration a must in order to accept dealing with applicants.  Ministerial decree number 42/2018 was issued on Tuesday March 20 accompanied by directives number 1 promulgated by the central administration for the protection of the labor force.

Despite the fact that these directives stipulate that the concerned directorates of labor force are requested to deliver free of charge to the trade union of workers – after ensuring that files include all the requested the papers – a stamped certificate according to the provisions of Article 45 in the executive regulation of the Law, obtaining such document seemed like an impossible dream even when all the papers and conditions stipulated by the Law and its executive regulation were dully provided.

According to our follow-up of the process during the past weeks, we can formulate the following remarks:

  1. The majority of labor force directorates request more documents than those stipulated by the Law and its executive regulation or in the directives issued by the Ministry.   Such additional documents include a special delegation of authority dully stamped by the real estate office from the trade union to its legal representative responsible of obtaining the readjustment of status!! Moreover, a rent contract also stamped by the real estate office is requested from trade union committees in enterprises while these committees are exempted from this condition by the Law’s executive regulation that considers their headquarters inside the enterprises as sufficient.  Another request is a photocopy of the IDs of all members in the trade union committee as well as the social security number of non-regular workers whereas everybody is aware that this category of workers does not benefit from social security.  Furthermore, employees in the directorates ask for a certificate showing the professional status of each member in the trade union committees.  In addition, they requested a proof of social security coverage for employees in the trade union committees where there are no paid- employees in these committees!!

As an illustration of these arbitrary measures, we present the following cases:

  • The labor force directorate of Giza refused to accept the application of the trade union committee of workers in free-lance professions and daily waged workers presented by its president and legal representative Ashraf El Deeb;  the liaison officer at the directorate justified this refusal by the fact that the ID of some members hold the mention “jobless”; it is important to note that this mention is applied in the case of  workers paid on a daily base and represents a well-known fact by everyone; the man refused also to accredit the statement provided by the office of social security about the data regarding the general assembly members despite the fact that Article 43 of the Law’s executive regulation exempts explicitly the trade union committees of irregular or seasonal labor force from presenting such document;
  • Cairo labor force directorate refusedto readjust the status of the trade union committee of workers in Cairo pharmacies and did not accept the application presented by its president Mr. Mohamed Hassanein.  At the beginning, the directorate pretended that the members of this committee should be affiliated to a professional trade union, i.e. the syndicate of pharmacists. The committee representative argued that their members are working in pharmacies as assistant pharmacists and therefore the requested affiliation did not apply; however the argument was not accepted by the directorate that asked for the social security number of each member knowing well that most of them are not covered by the umbrella of social security;
  • The trade union committee of workers at Nile Linen Group company located at the free zone in Alexandria is still facing obstacles starting from refusing to acknowledge their postal account number considered invalid as not being a bank account, through insisting to obtain the stamp of the social security office on the statement including the data related to the members of the general assembly; we note here that this stamp is pending on the payment of fees amounting to five pounds for each member whose number exceeds 900, representing thus a huge amount for a trade union committee with limited resources;
  1. We also noticed that the directorates of labor force defer on purpose trade unions intending to readjust their status to other administrative bodies, mainly the real estate authority and the offices of the national authority of social security; when trade unions resort to the real estate offices, employees there pretend having not received any directives related to documenting trade unions’ papers, this indicates in substance that they have received orders to abstain from registering these documents; in the case of the social security offices, they claim that they don’t have the right to stamp any kind of paper; the attitude of the directorates of labor force might indicate that instead of refusing directly to readjust the status of applicant trade unions, they are transferring this task to other governmental bodies;
  2. Particularly in Upper Egypt, the directorates of labor force declared bluntly to applicants that they have directives to abstain from regulating the status of independent trade unions which are not under the umbrella of the “governmental” General Federation of Workers Trade Unions; this happened in the governorates of Qena and Suhag.  In Alexandria, the liaison officer at the directorate of labor force declared clearly that he received no directives allowing to adjust the status of professional trade union committees at the level of the city or the governorate despite the precise provisions of the Law, its executive regulation, and the ministerial orders;
  3. It is true that all these practices are subject to negotiation and that some employees of the administration change their attitude sometimes while others persist on their stand; consequently, the number of few trade unions that succeeded to regulate their status remains quite limited; in this context, things are going on as if we were in a real battle where gaining a legal recognition is obtained with huge difficulty; it seems as if there was a bet on the frustration and despair of those trade unions leading them to withdraw from the battle or to simply join the “governmental” General Federation as per the clear advice of some employees responsible of readjusting the legal status of trade unions;
  4. It seems all the time that there are obvious directives included in the ministerial decree issued on March 20, in parallel with anonymous secret directives to obstruct the process to the maximum;

It is important to note here what happened with the Qalioubiah directorate of labor force after a trade union succeeded to regulate its status: Gebali El Maraghi, president of the General Federation contacted the director and blamed the directorate of allowing sustainability for independent trade unions instead of letting them vanishing; the most surprising thing is that Fathi Dessouki, director of the directorate responded positively to this intervention and requested from Mohamed Abdel Ghafour, liaison officer at the governorate to take his time in registering trade unions and postpone their applications.This led the latter to express frankly his upsetting wondering from whom the directorate is taking orders and declaring that he intends to head directly to the Ministry in order to obtain clarifications!!  This incident happened when Bassem Abou Raya, treasurer of the trade union committee of drivers in Banha, was presenting an application to Mr Mohamed Abdel Ghafour; since then, the representative of the trade union committee receives a repeated answer from the directorate that the application is still under study!!

  1. It is also worth noticing that Mohamed Issa, director of the central administration at the Ministry of Labor Force has substantively modified his attitude during last week: while he used to positively intervene when representatives of trade unions resorted to him to resolve their conflicts with the employees at the labor force directorates, he recently closed his door in front  of complainers following a meeting held few days ago at the Ministry headquarters with the purpose of reaching a decision approving  the unjustified requirements of the administration employees that go against the provisions of the Law, its executive regulation and the ministerial directives; this led many trade unions to think that the pressures exerted by the General Federation have succeededto achieve some results beside the interventions of some other bodies determined to reduce the opportunities of acquiring a legal status for independent trade unions;
  2. The majority of independent trade unions that have fulfilled all the requirements and submitted their application did not receive a certificate stating that they deposited a complete file as it is mentioned in the Law’s executive regulation as well as in the ministerial directives; applicants were asked to wait until the documents are dully revised; such practices raise fears among applicants about the possibility of obtaining the needed certificate in order to get the right of publication in the Official Journal, using the bank account, producing new stamps for the trade union, and practicing their activities.

All the above mentioned facts increase the doubts that these are attempts of delaying and that these attempts will persist until the end of the sixty days deadline.

In following-up this process that is nearly by the end of the first month, the Center of Trade Union and Workers Services declares its full solidarity with independent trade unions engaged in a fierce fight in order to regulate their status, guarantee their sustainability and pursue their activities aiming at defending workers’ rights and interests.  CTUWS confirms that all the practices referred to in this statement are not a secret to anybody, and that they indicate obvious governmental interventions in favor of the Egyptian General Federation of Workers Trade Unions in order to reduce the chances of survival for independent trade unions.

CTUWS has already declared its rejection of Law 213/2017 and its unfair provisions leading to the exclusion of some organizations and to the deprivation of some sectors of workers from their right to independently organize themselves; therefore, CTUWS requests NOW from the governmental bodies, and at least from the Ministry of Labor Force to show respect to the provisions of the Law and its executive regulation and commit itself to respect the rules related to the regulation of trade unions’ legal status.  We also call the concerned Ministry to take the necessary measures enabling independent trade unions to readjust their situation and guaranteeing that they are not exposed to the abusive practices that happened during the last period contrarily to the terms of the Law and the practical reality.

CTUWS

Thursday April 12 2018

 

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