Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98) - Egypt (Ratification: 1954)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its reports.

With reference to its previous comments on the need to amend section 87 of the Labour Code as amended by Act No. 137 of 1981, which provides that any clause of a collective agreement which is liable to impair the economic interests of the country shall be null and void, the Committee again recalls that a requirement imposed under penalty of nullification restricts the scope of collective bargaining and is liable to undermine the principle of voluntary negotiation laid down in Article 4 of the Convention. It stresses that in the event of economic difficulties the Government should resort to persuasion rather than constraint and that in any event the parties must remain free as to their final decisions.

Recalling that section 157(3) of the draft Labour Code no longer referred to the economic interests of the country as grounds for the cancellation of a clause of a collective agreement and noting with interest from the Government's report that the tripartite committee responsible for amending the Labour Code took note of the Committee of Experts' comments, the Committee asks the Government to indicate in its next report the measures that have actually been taken to amend section 87 of the Labour Code along the lines of the draft new Code in order to bring the legislation into conformity with the requirements of the Convention on this point.