A new judicial principal to protect piece workers. A judgement was issued to compensate a journalist with 87000 pounds, due to her dismissal during Covid 19.
On April 26, 2023, the 10th Circuit of the North Giza Court of First Instance issued a judgment in favor of “Mona.Y.M”, a journalist, against “Daal for Media Production”, compensating her with 87 thousand pounds, for her arbitrary dismissal in a lawsuit No.385 of 2021 dated back to 19/04/2023, filled by the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR).
The facts of the case are due to forcing the plaintiff to work from home for a period of time during Corona pandemic, before facing arbitrariness regarding in what was accepted and published from her tasks in order to decrease her monthly salary as much as possible, compared to what she had previously received. Thus, the Center’s lawyers considered that action as a sort of arbitrary dismissal in light of rulings which were issued in favor of ECESR, which classify a number of manipulating cases with workers’ salaries as arbitrary dismissal, which violates the employment contract concluded between the two parties. In addition, it contradicts with the exceptional circumstances applied in a number of business sectors during the Pandemic.
In its merits, the Court approved a new and innovative judicial principal asserting that Piece working has to be contractual and with an estimated salary. Furthermore, in case the employer wants to recruit a worker as a task-oriented freelance, whatever its type and nature, the labor or the agreement contract has to stipulate all these details, in terms of the size of production, its duration and product specifications.
Lawyer Mostafa Khairy, one of the Centers’ lawyers, said that this judgment is considered a significant judicial precedent, that forms a social and legislative protection for workers from employers’ manipulation and their attempt to escape from their responsibility towards the rights of workers as stipulated in the labor contract. In addition, he affirms that labor law is a social legislation rather than being an abstract law. Moreover, he added that labor Court works constantly to establish and update balanced and fair principals.
