Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Egypt (Ratification: 1957)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report contains no reply to its previous comments. It hopes that the next report will include full information on the following matters.

Affiliation to more than one union

The Committee had requested the Government to amend section 19(f) of Act No. 12 of 1995 so that all workers are able to join more than one organization if they so wish, in order to be able to defend their occupational interests if they are engaged in more than one occupation. The Committee recalls that, pursuant to Article 2 of the Convention, workers should have the right to join organizations of their own choosing, without previous authorization. In the view of the Committee, the issue touches not on trade union unity, but rather on the importance of ensuring that workers who hold more than one job are able to join a union to defend their occupational interests in each job category or occupation. So the Committee requests once again the Government to amend the legislation to enable workers to join more than one organization, if they so wish, to defend their occupational interests if they are engaged in more than one occupation.

Right to organize of public servants

In addition, the Committee recalls that, according to Article 2 of the Convention, freedom of association should be guaranteed not only to employers and workers in the private sector but also to public servants and officials, and to workers in nationalized industries. Persons in either category should be permitted to defend their interests by becoming organized. In this regard, the Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report if there are legal provisions which guarantee the right to organize for civil servants and, if that is the case, to send all the relevant texts.

The Committee emphasizes that while the Convention guarantees the right to organize for civil servants, their corollary right to strike may be either limited or prohibited. In the view of the Committee, a too broad definition of the concept of public servants is likely to result in a very wide restriction or even a prohibition of the right to strike for these workers since the term "civil servants" varies considerably from one country to another. Therefore, the Committee has always considered that the prohibition of the right to strike in the public service should be limited to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State (see General Survey on freedom of association and collective bargaining, 1994, paragraphs 156-158). In this regard, the Committee requests the Government to indicate in its next report the legal provisions which guarantee the right to strike for civil servants other than those who are exercising authority in the name of the State.