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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 6 - 12 January 2000 Issue No. 463
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Heritage Millennium Features Profile Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Labour and business
By Fatemah Farag"Last year was one in which the negative situation of labour became even more negative," said Abdel-Hamid El-Sheikh, head of the labour committee of the leftist Tagammu Party. The government itself has acknowledged the growing queue of the unemployed, the sometimes appalling situation of expatriate labour and shrinking foreign labour markets as well as the negative impact of structural adjustment programmes on the standard of living of the poor.
In addition to the government's list are labour issues which include the inadequacy of the current union structure, problems faced by labour and posed by the public sector, the inability of the concerned parties to fund the controversial early-retirement scheme as well as worrisome features in the patterns of new investment.
Only in November did the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) present the government with a list of requests which included a substantial increase in unemployment compensation; regulations that would oblige company owners to shoulder their share of social insurance payments; amendments to both the social and health insurance laws to meet current needs; and developing an adequate system of compensation for job-related injuries. All of these requests have yet to be addressed.
At the fore of the issues which dominated the labour versus capital dynamic in 1999 was the fate of the unified draft labour law. The general expectation is that the year 2000 will witness the passing of the draft law after many years of negotiations between representatives of government, business and the GFTU. Throughout 1999, there were repeated bouts of heated, and hardly comprehensible, contention between the GFTU and the business sector. The word is that business was pressuring the government to change the draft further in their favour. The GFTU consistently deny the allegation, claiming the government was on the side of labour and seizing the opportunity to call for the quick enactment of the bill.
The GFTU is selling the draft law as a solution to the twin problems of unemployment and investment -- the logic being that more flexible labour codes will encourage investment, which will in turn create badly needed jobs.
Independent labour activists have continually made holes in GFTU's logic. Nabil El-Hilali, a well-know human rights lawyer, has argued that the proposed law takes back many of the benefits enjoyed by labour such as job protection. He argues that some rights, such as that of staging a strike, are restricted to the point where they are made impossible.
Perhaps the strongest argument against GFTU logic, however, is the nature of new investments. Figures compiled by independent researchers, such as Nader El-Ferghani, director of the independent Almishkat Centre for Research, and Ragui Assad, professor at the Humphries Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, indicate that new investments favour capital-intensive ventures and create few job opportunities.
Furthermore, the conditions of a substantial sector of workers employed at the new industrial cities are not encouraging. "Workers in these new cities are without any protection," El-Sheikh said. "The government is supposed to be concerned with the private sector and new investments because they provide jobs. Yet in many of these factories, where there is no union representation, workers labour for 12 to 14 hours in one shift [as opposed to the seven-hour legal schedule] and are sometimes paid in kind instead of cash. The protection of the Ministry of Labour is lacking," El-Sheikh said.
The argument had been put forward again and again throughout 1999 that the time had come to change the union structure, a relic of the populist regime of former President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, with the GFTU remaining the sole legal trade union organisation. "We need stronger protection networks and, by this, I mean legislation and organisation," El-Sheikh said. "The trade union must be a democratic one, not one appointed by the state."
However, those who call for trade union changes disagree among themselves as to what those changes should be. People like El-Sheikh call for reform within the current structure and argue the need for a one-trade union system to protect the unity of the working class. Others, such as veteran labour activist Taha Othman, have called for trade union pluralism.
Despite the fact that the argument remains unresolved, pressure on the ground has resulted in the radicalisation of some trade union committees and has also created alternative forms of organisation. Two cases in point are the publication of local workers' newspapers in places such as Shubra Al-Kheima and the arrest of Tagammu activists in this working class neighborhood for organising lectures on the draft unified labour law. Moreover, the activities of the Centre for Union Services in Helwan won international recognition in December -- the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic, one of the most prestigious international human rights awards. An overall view of labour activism in 1999, however, shows a movement that is still fragmented.
Another aspect of the labour challenge is the education policy. As the public sector shrinks and agriculture continues to shed off labour, workers find themselves lacking skills that are needed for the few jobs being created on the market. A recent report by the Shura Council's Human Resources Committee said that as the nation enters the year 2000, the labour force is expected to rise to 20 million. But at the same time there has been a conspicuous lack of comprehensive planning in training for the past three decades.
Many would argue that the main challenge facing Egypt in the year 2000 is that of unemployment. The new cabinet, appointed in October, has announced that the number of unemployed stands at 1.4 million. The figure may very well be conservative and a new initiative to employ 650,000 people, including 150,000 who would fill government jobs, is described as an interim solution.
This comes at a time when the government is forced to confront head-on the problems faced by migrant labour in Arab countries. Violence involving expatriate workers in Kuwait in October spotlighted the dire circumstances faced by the migrants. Moreover, it was also recognised that Gulf markets are shrinking and have already started to shed off Egyptian labour in favour of either indigenous or non-Arab workers.
"I hope the year 2000 will be different," El-Sheikh said. "I think everyone has had time to take in the lessons of the past such as that of early retirement. At first people did not know what they were getting into. They thought .. [workers] will take a large sum of money and be fine. Today, they have joined the ranks of the unemployed. Now everything is crystal clear. Let us hope we can all learn the lessons that need to be learned to ensure a better future."
