In an unexpected move, the Doctors' Syndicate has called off a strike scheduled for Saturday, writes Hala Sakr Following an emergency meeting on Sunday the Council of the Doctors' Syndicate and the Union of Egyptian Physicians has decided to suspend the strike scheduled for 15 March, and instead stand in protest at the syndicate's headquarters in Cairo and local union branches across the country. The limited two-hour strike was initially planned for all public hospitals, barring emergency and intensive care units, between 9-11am on Saturday. It was unanimously agreed during last month's emergency general meeting (EGM) convened in protest against the Ministry of Health's draft bill which, critics insist, seeks to create a "special cadre of medical doctors". Doctors voted to reject the government's proposals which they described as an arbitrary package of discretionary incentives that fails to address their demands for a comprehensive overhaul of wages and conditions. The decision has disappointed many doctors who gathered on the syndicate's steps to insist on their right to strike in defence of their demands regardless of ongoing negotiations with the government. "They [the Syndicate Council] have no authority to overrule an EGM decision [to go on strike]. The EGM was one of the best attended for 20 years and the decision was unanimous," says Mona Mina, a state-employed pediatrician and a member of the Doctors without Rights group. Hani Fawzi, of the Alexandria Syndicate Council, points out that, "the strike has not been cancelled". "It has been postponed until further discussion, which will happen at the usual general assembly which convenes on Friday 21 March." Fawzi told Al-Ahram Weekly that the delay is a result of changes in the Ministry of Health's position. The syndicate has received a letter from the ministry outlining the minister's intention to increase the salaries of resident doctors and emergency and intensive care physicians from July 2008. Mina, like many of her colleagues, is less than impressed. "How does this represent a change in the ministry's position?" she asks. "These improvements are based on incentives rather than an increase in basic salaries." The salaries of government-employed doctors begin at less than LE300 (approximately $50) and are supplemented by a bonus package that takes into account night shifts, postgraduate degrees, administrative responsibilities and performance. Additional compensation, however, is discretionary, depending on ministerial decrees and a host of bureaucratic complexities. The council's decision to delay the strike follows receipt of a letter from the government pointing out that any work stoppage by doctors would violate the prime minister's decree No. 1158 issued in 2003 which prohibits strikes in vital strategic facilities. Syndicate Council member Abdel-Fattah Rizk says the delay was necessary to protect doctors' interests and avoid legal or administrative complications. Meanwhile, the syndicate is seeking legal advice on its position. Dentists also suspended a strike which was supposed to coincide with that of the doctors. They have called an EGM for 27 March and are also seeking legal advice. Unified Labour Law No. 12 for the year 2003 has hitherto been applied mainly to workers in the private and investment sectors. Articles 192 to 196, though, give the prime minister the right to specify strategic facilities at which strikes are prohibited. Khaled Ali, of the Hisham Mubarak Legal Centre, told Al-Ahram Weekly that while the law regulates work relations not covered by other laws it does not apply to doctors employed by the state. "State-employed civil workers -- including government physicians -- are subject to Law 47 for the year 1987," he argues. "The right to strike covered by this law is regulated by the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which Egypt ratified in 1982." Article 151 of the Egyptian constitution states that any international convention to which Egypt is a signatory passes into law. "The covenant is part and parcel of the Egyptian legislation and its regulations are binding," Ali told the Weekly. In addition, he points out that, "Article 4 of the Unified Labour Law of 2003 clearly stipulates that it does not apply to state-employed workers, domestic workers or family members supported by the relevant business owner." "State-employed doctors have every right to strike whenever they deem it necessary. No one can prohibit strikes and in so-called vital and strategic facilities they [the government] are obliged to provide alternative ways for practising the right to withhold labour," insists Ali. In the wake of the syndicate's decision Doctors without Rights issued a statement denouncing the Syndicate Council decision as tantamount to "giving in to government threats and aborting the hopes of doctors in their struggle against demeaning conditions of work". The group has decided to embark on its own week of protests, including a six-day sit in at the syndicate's headquarters beginning on 15 March, the date of the usual general meeting. They will also stand the syndicate's steps for two hours daily, from 3-5pm. The group is also considering taking the whole issue of the right to strike to the Constitutional Court. Their statement called on doctors to adopt a unified stand in pressing their demands.
