Parliament controversy on Trade Union Organization Law

CAIRO – 27 October 2017: A draft law of Trade Union Organization sparked a lot of controversy in the parliament while reviewing its text.

The draft law, presented by Member of Parliament Abdel Fattah Mohammed and ten fellow members, aims to amend law No. 35 of 1978.

The parliament's Manpower Committee held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the draft law, witnessing a debate between the members of the committee, their leader Gibali El-Maraghi, the legal advisor of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions Hosni Saad and representatives from the Ministry of Manpower.

The debate ended with the cancellation of the nationality requirement for acquiring a membership in the union.

The condition that states that a member shouldn’t be sentenced to a criminal penalty before joining the union was cancelled, answering the voices that said that the draft law includes three penalties restricting liberty by imprisonment.

El-Maraghi insisted on the condition of punishing workers who go beyond the rights of colleagues, stressing that these conditions aim to establish the rules of respect that help stabilize the workplace.

On the age of the members, Saad said that the labor law and social insurance law set the age of retirement to terminate the worker's relationship with the employer or the company, but the situation is different in the trade union law.

“We will not deprive anyone from being a member in the union just because he reaches the age of 60,” he added.

He demanded that the law should include articles that state that the union shouldn’t have the authority to deprive members who reach the age of retirement from membership.