| | | | Principles and Legal Rights | |
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| | | | | "The State shall insure equal opportunities for all citizens.""Citizens are equal before the law. They have equal rights and duties without distinction because of sex, origin, language, religion or belief." | | | | | | | |  | Education is a basic right for all citizens based on the principle of equal opportunity irrespective of geographic location, sex, or other considerations. | | The State is committed to provide education (pre-university and university level free of charge). | | Basic education is the right of all children who reach six years of age. | | Education is a right for all children free of charge in public schools. |
| | | | | | | | Public office is a right for all citizens.
(One exception was the post of judge. Although the relevant laws did not include any provision prohibiting appointment of women to the position of a judge, there was no such appointment except in the beginning of the year 2003).
| | | | | | | | The civil law governing ownership rights in Egypt provides that the owner has the right exclusively to use, exploit and dispose of the object of ownership within the limits of the law and without any discrimination between men and women. | | | | | | | | | | | All Egyptian laws and statues affirm the principle of equality among all citizens with respect to the right to work. To illustrate: (Zulficar, M. 1995) | | |
| | | | | Article 13 of the 1971 Constitution provides that work is a right, a duty and an honor guaranteed by state and excellent employees should be appreciated by the state and society. It provides further that citizens may not be forced to work, except by a law which that declares that work is required in order to provide a service and on condition that such work is carried out in exchange for a fair compensation. This provision gives all citizens a constitutional right to work, without discrimination between man and women. In addition, Articles 10 and 11 of the Constitution impose an obligation on the state to protect mothers and children as well as to reconcile between women's duties toward their families on the one hand, and their work in society on the other. | | |
| | | | | | In application of the principle of women's right to work as upheld in the Constitution and the various international conventions referred to above, the following laws were enacted: | | | Law No. 47/1978 promulgated by the Civil Servants System and Law No. 48/1978 promulgated by the Public Sector Employees System | | | Both these laws contain provisions to help women working in government and the public sector, and their spouses, to reconcile their duties towards their families and their work responsibilities, in accordance with Article 11 of the Constitution. These laws state the following rights and privileges: | | | | The right of a husband or wife to unpaid leave to accompany his/her spouse working abroad for a period of not less than 6 months, whether on secondment basis or otherwise. The law makes it incumbent on the spouse in all cases. (Art. 69, Law No.47/1978 and Art. 71, Law No. 48/1978) | | The right of the female employee to take up to two years unpaid leave to look after her child. Such unpaid leave is granted three times during the employee's period of service. During the leave, the state is required either to pay both its quota and that of the female employee in the social insurance subscription, or to pay her an indemnity equivalent to 25% of her salary, at her option. This is in recognition of the importance of the role of women in providing care to their infants. This is also an indication that the legislature is keen not to handicap working women or to encumber them with additional financial burdens when they opt to provide full-time care for their infants on a temporary basis, in accordance with the Constitution and the law. (Art.70, Law No. 47/1978 and Art. 72, Law No. 48/1978) | | The right of women to paid maternity leave for a period of three months. The maternity leave is not deducted from regular annual leave. (Art. 71 Law No 47/1978 and Art 72, Law No 48/1978) |
| | | | | Labor Law No. 137/1981 | | | This law lays down the basic rules governing labor relations and the duties of both employee and employer. It applies to both private and public sector employees, in those matters which are not specifically addressed under Law No. 48/1978.
In a separate chapter, the labor law defines the rules governing employment of women. These rules secure for working women their constitutional right to work without discrimination between men and women performing the same job, and facilitate the performance of women's duties to their families and children without suffering prejudice or deprivation of any of their rights as workers, in the following manner: | | | | By requiring the application of all provisions governing employment without discrimination to men and women performing the same job, without prejudice to the rules governing the employment of women and granting them certain privileges or protecting them from the arbitrariness or mistreatment of employers. (Art.151 of the Law) | | By prohibiting the employment of women between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., except in certain types of work, the nature and circumstances of which entail nighttime work, such as hotels, restaurants, theaters, hospitals, cinemas, airports, tourist and airline offices, and during official holidays and in case of necessity so as to avoid a certain loss. This exception applies also to senior posts. In these cases, employers are obliged to provide the necessary guarantees for the safety, protection, and transportation of their female employees. (Art. 52 of the Law and Ministerial Decree No. 23/1982) | | By prohibiting the employment of women in work detrimental to their health or morals or in strenuous jobs. As defined by Ministerial Decree No. 22/1982, these jobs include working in bakeries, underground work in mines and quarries, stevedoring, soldiering, working in bars and gambling casinos, etc. (Art. 153 of the Law) | | By granting a female employee who has served the same employer for at least 6 months, the right to a fully paid maternity leave of 50 days, provided this leave is not granted for more than three times during her period of service. In all cases, it is mandatory for a female employee to take leave for the 40 days following birth. (Art. 154 of the Law) | | By granting a female two fully paid half-hour rest breaks daily to breast-feed her infant, during the 18 months following her confinement. (Art. 155 of the Law) | | By granting a female employee employed by an establishment having not less than 50 workers to one year's unpaid leave to look after her infant, three times during her service. | | By requiring an employer who employs more than one hundred women in the same place to establish a nursery, or to participate in a nursery if the number of women working in his establishment is less than one hundred. (Zulficar, M. 1995) | | The Egyptian labour market is regulated by the Labor Law No.137 for 1981. However, a new Unified Labor Law has been ratified lately by the Parliament. The law comprises 270 articles that address all the legal aspects regulating the Egyptian labor market. The new law aims at increasing the private sector involvement and at the same time achieving a balance between employees' and employers' rights. Amongst the most important issues that the new law addresses is the right of an employer to fire an employee and the conditions pertaining to this as well as granting employees the right to strike. The labor law has been in circulation since 1994, but was delayed for five years and revised 17 times under pressure from opposition parties and workers' groups. Supporters of the legislation argue that it's a long-overdue piece of legal reform to shepherd Egypt into the new economic order. The logic is that if the hands of business are untied, entrepreneurs will be able to make better investment decisions and will contribute to growth, job creation and stability. A transitional period of layoffs and high unemployment is the necessary short-term price for future prosperity, the reasoning goes. Critics say that the law would erode important labor gains secured in the 1950s and 1960s, without granting any right to strike. | Source: | http://www.amcham.org.eg/dbe/Labor.asp
http://www.cairotimes.com/news/laborlaw.html
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