ILC Vice-President: Egypt "Temporarily" Taken Out of List of Countries Violating International Conventions; Final Situation after Report of "Aid Committee"

Egypt has been taken out of the list of the countries contravening the ILO agreements during the general conference being held in Geneva.  However, this is just temporarily until the technical aid committee's report sent by the ILO to Egypt last April is discussed, Samir Alam, Vice-President of the International Labor Conference, said.
Last year, the ILO 'blacklisted' Egypt among countries violating the ILO international conventions.
In press statements yesterday, Alam described Egypt's violations as "unserious".
Self-flagellation is not required, especially as these irregularities and international observations will be avoided in the national labor legislation as soon as possible to meet the ILO conventions and standards.
The report of the technical committee will be presented to the ILO Governing Body next November to decide whether Egypt would be blacklisted in the next year's conference or if it would be granted a grace until 2011 to observe the international standards, he added.
 
No one can predict what will be written in the report, which will be prepared by Karen Curtis, head of the International Standards Commission, who has recently visited Cairo.
 
Egypt's government, workers and employers held intensive meetings with the delegation of the ILO International Standards in Cairo to explain the situation. Furthermore, the report will be issued in accordance with the delegation's vision.
 
The International Labor Conference is currently discussing the reports of twenty-five States, which are blacklisted for violating the international conventions. The list included Israel, Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Italy, Chile, Turkey, Belarus, Tanzania, China, Colombia, Korea, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Congo, Russia, Swaziland, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, and the Philippines.
 
Addressing the ILC yesterday, head of the Egyptian Trade Unions Hussein Megawir accused employers and multinational companies of violating all international laws and conventions. They exploit workers' need to jobs and strip them of many of their main rights, principles of social protection and basic rights of work, such as their right to form trade unions to defend their rights.
Megawir called on the government to play a more active role in defending workers' rights and to endorse a minimum fair wage to face high prices.
The government should keep production facilities under strict supervision to provide workers with a healthy environment. The ILC meetings next Monday and Tuesday will be attended by six Heads of State led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in addition to ten prime ministers and ministers of economy.
Egypt's Minister of Economic Development Ahmed Darwish will attend the conference to present Egypt's experience in the face of the global financial crisis. Youssef Boutros Ghali, Minister of Finance, was supposed to attend the conference, but he apologized at the last minute.