With the discussion of minimum wages high on the government's agenda, workers are keeping their fingers crossed that this year May Day will bring cause for celebration, writes Dena Rashed Just over a kilogramme of meat, a tank and a half of gas or five watermelons: a LE100 note will buy just one of these options. For many there is an extremely limited number of such notes in their salaries. Some new graduates receive just one, a basic salary of LE100 a month, a figure that startled even the speaker of parliament Fathi Sorour earlier this month. Nagui Rashad, 46, who has been working for the Egyptian Company for Mills since 1988, has decided his handful of notes is no longer enough. Objecting to a basic salary of LE368, he has filed a case against the government in an attempt to force the application of Article 34 of Labour Law 12/2003 which stipulates that labourers' wages rise in tandem with inflation. During the first week of April the Administrative Court ruled that the government was obliged to set a minimum wage that took price rises on basic commodities into account. The ruling was followed by a demonstration of hundreds of workers, together with employees of the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights, who protested in front of the cabinet office demanding a LE1,200 basic minimum wage instead of the LE35 in force since 1984. "It is about time that the Minimum Wages Council, which was established in 2003, began to function. We are waiting for the government to apply the court ruling to cover all labourers," Rashad told Al-Ahram Weekly. Rashad learned last year -- on the first day of the court case -- that he was being investigated by the Egyptian Company for Mills. Although the internal investigation ruled in his favour he is still suspended from work. For the past year he has managed by working on a construction site. Kamal Abu Aieta, head of the independent General Union of Property Tax Workers and a leading labour activist, believes the LE1,200 minimum wage is a realistic demand. "If a university graduate in the 1970s received LE17 and that covered his expenses, then it is only fair that a graduate now receives a decent salary. What can LE120 a month do for a fresh graduate now?" Both Abu Aieta and Rashad base part of their arguments on a study by Ahmed El-Naggar, the economic analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, who was called as an expert witness by the Administrative Court. El-Naggar pointed out that in 1978 a basic salary of LE22 would have bought the worker 18 kilogrammes of meat, now estimated at LE900. Taking a basket of essential commodities as his starting point, he demonstrated that today's average wage barely covers basic expenses. He also discussed the application of the minimum wage and how it might be funded. Among his proposals were a progressive tax on incomes over LE40,000, a 0.5 per cent charge on stock market transactions, a 20 per cent corporate tax on net profits and the removal of electricity and gas subsidies for cement, iron and fertilisers companies. "These solutions are realistic and would be applied if the 22.5 million white and blue collar workers pushed the government to fulfil their interests," he said. Safwat El-Nahhas, head of the Central Authority for Planning and Management, points out that the Higher Constitutional Court has ruled that setting a maximum wage -- which has been applied since 1984 at LE54,000 per month -- is unconstitutional. "While there should be a balance between minimum and maximum wages, the court said that additional work deserves legitimately added income," he told the Weekly. As for the LE35, El-Nahhas argues that it exists only on paper and is supplemented by bonuses and annual increases. Why, he asks, should someone entering the labour market for the first time, with little in the way of education, possibly just 18 years of age, and with no family to support, command a minimum salary of LE1,200? Internationally, says El-Nahhas, three criteria come into play in setting a minimum monthly wage. "It should be above the recognised national poverty line, which in Egypt is LE164. It could be less than half the average wage, which is LE450. And it should be amended according to inflation rates, over a period of one to five years." El-Nahhas also points out that 28 per cent of Egypt's workforce are employed in the public sector on salaries of LE400 a month and above. Demanding LE1,200 as a minimum wage, he argues, is self-defeating. If it ever happens the "first people who will suffer are the workers themselves because the moment the increase is paid prices will skyrocket". (see p.3)
