Crisis Unions’ Watch
CTUWS: third report on impacts of the global financial crisis on workers in Egypt
Introduction
The report emphasizes the continuous bleed of workers layoff for the fourth month successively in tourism and spinning, textiles and garment sectors. The report emphasizes as well the warnings announced in the first report against employers who exploit the workers under the pretext of the global financial crisis. This was apparent clearly in the case of the Nile Cotton Ginning Company. In an official meeting of the board chairman with the Ministry of Manpower, he promised to disburse salaries in a regular manner. The workers were surprised with an administrative decision to cut off their incentives for extraordinary work under the pretext of the financial crisis. As expected, many other businessmen started the threat to shut off their businesses in order to be allowed to reduce the workers dues. The report monitored as well an official memorandum from businessmen to the Prime Minister in which they asked for more incentives for themselves, without the slightest reference to workers rights preservation. Deploring the government’s persisting silence towards the monitored layoffs, CTUWS calls for urgent mechanisms and plans to confront such actions, reemphasizes the need to activate the emergency and unemployment funds stipulated by the labour law and the social insurance law and warns against the employers’ manipulation of the global financial crisis to layoff workers and deprive them of their rights.
CTUWS is seriously concerned with the trend of some employers to constrict and violate the workers rights or to take predetermined arbitrary procedures as if they were waiting for such a crisis in order to put these procedures into effect.
They call for government support and assistance and claim that they are unable to bear more pressures in addition to those of the financial crisis. However, it is the opinion of CTUWS that such an approach - which makes businesses wash their hands from any social responsibility and which has practically led to several crises in work sites during the past few weeks – will lead to more tensions and consequently to more passive repercussions and more serious reactions.
The Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services (CTUWS) 1st June 2009.
- CTUWS - 3rd Report on impacts of the global financial crisis on workers in Egypt