Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

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

The Committee notes the Government’s report.

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 in cases where they are engaged in more than one occupation. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report to the effect that it considers it to be unlikely that a worker could join a general trade union while at the same time exercising another activity outside the occupational classification. The Government adds that, even where a worker exercises more than one activity in several workplaces, in such a case, that worker would have an occupation which was not outside the occupational classification of the general trade union of which she or he was a member. The worker concerned would therefore remain a member of one and the same trade union.

While noting the Government’s explanations, the Committee recalls that, under the terms of Article 2 of the Convention, workers have the right to join organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization. In the view of the Committee, this issue relates to 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 in which they work. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to amend the legislation to enable workers to join more than one organization, if they so wish, to defend their occupational interests in cases where they are engaged in more than one occupation.