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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Labour and the
By Fatemah Farag
privatisation ministrySayed Rashed, the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) has had a busy two weeks. They began with his first official meeting with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, followed by consultations with both Moukhtar Khattab, minister of the public business sector, and Ahmed El-Amawy, minister of manpower and training. The series of meetings were, however, shrouded in a cloud of vague press statements and rumours that conflict had erupted between GFTU and the Ministry of the Public Business Sector.
"I think I should point out that at the beginning of any undertaking, mistakes sometimes occur. Whatever has happened between us and them, or for that matter, any mistakes that might occur in the future, all of this is natural. I do not think any problems that have occurred are insurmountable," Sayed Rashed told Al-Ahram Weekly in an exclusive interview this week.
According to Rashed and other senior officials at GFTU, this first round of discussions between GFTU and the new government has set the stage for "further progress", and has proved that GFTU is an equal partner in the process of economic restructuring.
"The wise policy set by the head of state gives us the right to negotiate with the government and with officials at all levels, even if there is no legal framework for such negotiations," emphasised Rashed.
In addition to GFTU's now "historic" demand, namely that the controversial draft Unified Labour Law be speedily processed, GFTU took a long list of requests into its meetings with government officials. The following are samples: a major increase in unemployment compensation; regulations that would oblige company owners to shoulder their share of social insurance payments for their workers; amendments to both the social and health insurance laws to meet current needs; developing an adequate system of compensation for workers who suffer job-related injury.
"We have been promised by the prime minister that these requests will be taken into consideration and that the necessary studies will be promptly undertaken," Rashed noted.
The challenges and stakes involved in adjusting labour conditions to economic reform are considerable. Ebeid's government is expected to speed up privatisation. Already far into its economic restructuring programme (Egypt privatised more than one third of the public sector in 1996/7 alone), unemployment, poverty and illiteracy remain perennial problems as attested to by 1998 figures released by the International Monetary Fund, the very agency which has proclaimed Egypt's economic reform programme a success story.
Rising rates of economic growth and a revitalised stock market (Egypt has been listed in the International Finance Corporation's emerging markets index) continue to have a down-side, as welfare systems and job-security are being threatened by privatisation and other economic measures. For workers, this has increasingly meant that previously enjoyed protection from lay-offs, access to pensions and social insurance, company-provided housing, even basic food subsidies and price controls on other basic commodities have become largely a thing of the past.
Sayed Rashed
"The correct management of our relationship [with the government] means social stability," underlined Rashed.
As the sole legal trade union organisation in the country, which moreover is almost wholly dependent on the public sector for its (compulsory) membership, GFTU itself, and not just its labour constituency, seems to be facing a highly uncertain future. It has been, after all, part and parcel of the corporatist arrangements symptomatic of so-called "populist authoritarian" regimes such as Nasser's in Egypt, Peron's in Argentina, etc. At the heart of these arrangements was a trade-off whereby the trade union movement is incorporated into the regime in return for pro-labour policies, legislation and official discourse. Can GFTU survive unscathed as the country hurtles even further towards a free-market, private-enterprise based economy?
Hitherto, it has. When it was time to shift towards a market-oriented economy, GFTU seemed to have little problem in dropping the socialist rhetoric of its glory days and coming out in support of privatisation. Rashed expressed satisfaction that "many companies have been sold to the workers. For example, land reclamation companies."
He added, "If we feel in the future that a specific company should be sold to the workers, we will be sure to say so. Also, it should be remembered that there is a law and a political decision to allocate 10 per cent of any company up for sale to the workers. What more can we ask for?"
A burning issue related to the process of privatisation has been the early retirement package. According to figures released by the Ministry of Manpower in 1998, 130,000 workers have already been covered by the plan. However, it has not been all smooth sailing. Rank-and-file labour activists have complained that, in many instances, workers were being coerced into accepting early retirement. The Land Centre for Human Rights, a non-governmental organisation, has documented a number of such allegations. Among them is the case of 2,472 workers of a cotton mill in Zefta, in the Delta, who were allegedly subjected to punitive transfers from their jobs for having refused to sign up for early retirement.
Rashed reiterated, however, that as far as GFTU is concerned, the early retirement package is optional, with individual workers having full rights to take it or leave it. The early retirement programme is facing problems of a different sort, however. For even when the workers do opt for early retirement compensation, the government does not seem to have sufficient funds to pay up. A case in point is the Misr-Helwan Spinning and Weaving Company, where over 2,000 workers signed up for the plan and, as yet, have not received compensation.
Rashed is nonplussed, however. "As long as workers are being paid their wages, it is not our concern if the government cannot come up with the liquidity to finance early retirement programmes," he said. "It is not like we were talking about regular retirement. Early retirement is an optional benefit. The important thing is that no worker be thrown out on the street. If it takes time to implement the programme, so be it. There is no rush."
The trade union leader was adamant, however, that GFTU would not accept the lowering of the minimum age for early retirement. "We feel that such an idea would jeopardise workers' rights. The minimum age for men shall remain 50 years, for women 45 years."
But GFTU's major concern remains the draft Unified Labour Law which has been in the making for the past five years and is yet to be presented to parliament. Indeed, earlier this year there were reports that the draft had either been shelved altogether, or that businessmen have rejected the current draft and insist on drastic changes. "[The draft] took a long time to prepare, but it was time worth taking. It is a result of consultations and co-ordination between the government, businesses and workers," Rashed said. He insisted that "the draft will be presented to parliament soon, and it is that same draft. There is no truth to rumours that changes were made."
