ILO memo final

To: Director of the International Labor Organisation, Cairo Office

From: General Union of Real Estate Tax (independent of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions)

Abstract:

The General Union of Real Estate Tax presents this memorandum which contains therein highlighted cases of abuse against workers in the interest of Real Estate taxes and other interests and industrial sectors, in past months, and this following from the faith of the General Union of Real Estate Tax, along with those workers abused owing to their demands of their rights, in the role appointed to the International Labor Organisation, in the way of response to any attack on labor rights or any other associated rights, such as the right of workers to peaceful assembly, or the right to strike, or to address public authorities with their demands and concerns, by placing the Egyptian government before its responsibilities to which it is bound under the ILO conventions which it has ratified with particular regard to Convention no. 98 concerning the Application of the Principles of the Right to Organise and to Bargain Collectively and which was adopted by the International Labor Conference on 1st July 1949 and of which the first article stipulates that:

1. Workers shall enjoy adequate protection against acts of anti-union discrimination in respect of their employment.

2. Such protection shall apply more particularly in respect of acts calculated to–

(a) make the employment of a worker subject to the condition that he shall not join a union or shall relinquish trade union membership;

(b) cause the dismissal of or otherwise prejudice a worker by reason of union membership or because of participation in union activities outside working hours or, with the consent of the employer, within working hours.

Along with the text of Article II of the aforementioned convention, which states:

1. Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall enjoy adequate protection against any acts of interference by each other or each other’s agents or members in their establishment, functioning or administration.

2. In particular, acts which are designed to promote the establishment of workers’ organisations under the domination of employers or employers’ organisations, or to support workers’ organisations by financial or other means, with the object of placing such organisations under the control of employers or employers’ organisations, shall be deemed to constitute acts of interference within the meaning of this Article.

With additional regard to those commitments by the Egyptian government under Convention No. 87 concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize approved by the International Labour Conference on July 9, 1948, which stipulates the following …

Article 1

Each Member of the International Labour Organisation for which this Convention is in force undertakes to give effect to the following provisions.

Article 2

Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organisation concerned, to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorisation.

Article 3

1. Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall have the right to draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives in full freedom, to organise their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes.

2. The public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof.

Article 4

Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall not be liable to be dissolved or suspended by administrative authority.

Article 5

Workers’ and employers’ organisations shall have the right to establish and join federations and confederations and any such organisation, federation or confederation shall have the right to affiliate with international organisations of workers and employers.

Article 6

The provisions of Articles 2, 3 and 4 hereof apply to federations and confederations of workers’ and employers’ organisations.

Article 7

The acquisition of legal personality by workers’ and employers’ organisations, federations and confederations shall not be made subject to conditions of such a character as to restrict the application of the provisions of Articles 2, 3 and 4 hereof.

Article 11

Each Member of the International Labour Organisation for which this Convention is in force undertakes to take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure that workers and employers may exercise freely the right to organise.

The cases mentioned in this memorandum were subject to abuse at the hands of employers, whether in the public or the private sectors. The General Union for Real Estate Tax Workers therefore directs, on its own behalf and that of the sponsors of this memorandum from among the working men and women of Egypt, its demands to the ILO. Given that this abuse has taken various forms, from suspension, to transfer to distant work locations, to the reduction and elimination of incentives and the elimination of bonuses of various types and fixed pay deductions, in addition to being subject to discrimination from the General Unions under the Federation of the Egyptian Trade Unions by freezing workers’ union membership in order to facilitate their dismissal or the discrimination by the employers, all in disagreement with the ILO conventions and its constitution, the General Union for Real Estate Tax Workers therefore directs, on its own behalf and that of the sponsors of this memorandum from among the working men and women of Egypt, the following demands:

• Intervention for the lifting of all arbitrary sanctions placed on workers.
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• Intervention to compel all employers to implement judiciary provisions issued in the interest of workers.
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• Intervention to overturn all administrative decisions arbitrarily issued against workers.