A judicial victory in favor of the Egyptian Center.. the number of workers, who obtained decisions to resume their work in “Universal Group Co.”, increased to 33 workers, after judicial rulings in favor of the return of 11 workers

Yesterday, Tuesday, January 31, 2023, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights ECESR obtained 11 judicial rulings in favor of 11 workers in the Universal Group for Engineering Industries, as the Second Labor Full Court issued a decision in favor of the workers by rejecting the Company’s lawsuits, as well as their right to resume their work and receive their late financial dues.

Previously, the Egyptian Center had obtained rulings in favor of 22 workers in the Universal Group for Engineering Industries, as the Second Circuit of the South Labor Full Court decided the workers’ right to resume their work in the Company and receive the payment of their late financial dues, as well as rejecting the Company’s lawsuits. Thus, the number of workers who obtained judicial decisions to return to their work has raised to 33 workers.

The Egyptian Center welcomes the rulings that came as part of 60 lawsuits filed by the Center in favor of the workers in which the Court’s Circuit decided to merge these rulings to other similar lawsuits. It is expected that the number of rulings in favor of the return of workers and granting them their financial dues, may be increased during the next few periods of time. The Center stresses that these rulings are considered a major judicial triumph for their rights.

The Center praises the issuance of the rulings in favor of workers in a record time just in few months, as the Center filed these lawsuits in favor of them from the End of August to the start of September 2022. Then, the Court issued its decisions from December 27 to 29, 2022, in a much fewer time than the usual time rate in such cases. The court became certain through the attached documents and the defense of the defense team regarding the extent of injustice occurred to workers and their dire and inhumane conditions.

The rulings were decisive in acknowledging and asserting that the workers didn’t violate the Law and that the company’s accusation for them of committing a strike to disrupt the progress of work isn’t a real allegation and lacks seriousness and reason. it is worth mentioning that before filing lawsuits whether related to the Company to consider the dismissal order against workers, or the workers’ lawsuits for being subjected to injustice from a long period of time, workers knocked all possible doors before resorting to the Labor Court.

The workers had filed complaints to the Ministry of Manpower which, in turn, sponsored a deal between the Company and workers to schedule the payment of their financial dues. Moreover, they submitted complaints to the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives, and Prime Ministry, together with their complaints to the Manpower Office of Directorate of Manpower and Immigration – Giza.

During the past months, the legal defense team of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights received 60 complaints of arbitrary dismissal from the workers of Universal Group Co., at the time when the Company’s Administration violated the previously ratified collective labor agreements between it and the workers’ representatives, and in the presence of the Ministry of Manpower representatives.

The Center’s lawyers were surprised that the Company’s legal representative submitted requests to the Labor Court to dismiss the workers, in a new episode of manipulation of the fate of these workers, together with putting them under the pressure of displacement and deprivation of wages, in light of the absence of any tangible role from the responsible authorities of the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration.

The workers suffer from the deterioration in the salary and wages system that led to stopping the production in the Company’s factories, as well as the Administration’s manipulation in the workers’ wages which led to bad living and material conditions, which, in turn, resulted in one worker’s attempt to commit a suicide in last February, in addition to other crises.

The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights indicated that wage manipulation is not the only crisis that workers face, as they face a crisis in the absence of some occupational safety and health factors in the workplace, which led to the injury of a number of them with cirrhosis, kidney diseases, and limb injuries that led to its amputation, according to their affidavit.