Dismantle The Board Of The General Union Of Labor Syndicates Or Imprison The Labor Force Minister And Dismiss Him

The undersigned organizations submitted a request to the labor force minister demanding to implement the court ruling of dismantling the board of the general union of labor syndicates and assigning an interim  neutral steering committee till a judicial committee is formed to manage the election process on all levels according to court decision and according to article #41 of the labor law 35/1976.

The request was submitted a week ago, however no response showed any abiding to court decisions .

So, the undersigned drafted this statement to warn the minister of labor force either to execute the court decisions and dismantle the board of the general union of labor syndicates or file a misdemeanor case against the minister to imprison and dismiss him as per article 123 of the penal code.

Independent labor forces have recently obtained executable court decisions to annul the regulations of trade union elections in session 2001- 2006 as per the court decision 12504 /jy55. The elections were run without judicial supervision contrary to article 41 of the labor law 35/1976 I addition to the fact that candidates were also members of the elections committees thereby rigging was most likely to take place.

The labor union and the ministry of labor forces challenged the ruling by the appeals 661,708 /48. On 6/5/2006 , the supreme administrative court rejected both appeals and upheld the administrative court decision. The elections of 2006- 2011 were also run contrary to article #41 and with no judicial supervision leading to that  candidates  became  members of the election committees. We challenged the three decrees regulating all three elections of labor committees , general union and the general labor union

The court decided to stop the enforcement of these decrees by the decisions :

1-   Decision 1827 /jy61 issued on 2/11/2006 to stop enforcing the ministerial decree #296/2006 to  regulate labor committees elections

2-   Decision 3469/ jy61 issued on 12/11/2006 to  stop enforcing the ministerial decree #298/2006 to  regulate the general union elections.

3-   Decision 4382/ jy61 issued on 26/11/2006 to  stop enforcing the ministerial decree #300/2006 to  regulate the general labor union elections.

All these decisions should be immediately implemented and will be upheld by the supreme administrative court based on the prior incident of rejecting the appeals 661,708/sjy48.

However, the former labor force minister refrained from abiding to the law to protect the boards of the union and the general union.

Finally, the undersigned submitted a notice to the current minister demanding to implement the court decision.  As soon as reluctance showed in the minister response, the undersigned resorted to the last legal means , which is warning the minister either to implement or go to prison and lose the post as per article 123 of the penal code endorsing the rule of law.

The Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights

Hisham Mubarak Law Center

Ma’an Campaign for union freedoms

The Egyptian Committee to protect labor rights