CAIRO: The Federation of Independent Unions said Tuesday that it “has strong reservations” about the workshops organized by the Ministry of Finance, that invited the International Labor Organization (ILO) to discuss the short-term plans for Egypt's labor laws and policies on April 11 and 12. The federation said the representation of the Egyptian labor movement invited to participate in the workshops is “skewed.” On the sidelines of the workshop, Kamal Abu Eita, head of the newly formed federation, told Daily news Egypt that he was disappointed that the ministry had invited the previous federation of worker unions to the discussion. For Abu Eita, the old worker unions were part of the regime that fell as a result of the Egyptian revolution, and since the government recognized the independent unions, the role of the previous compromised unions lacked credibility and the support of the “true Egyptian labor movement which started in Tahrir Square.” “The only reason we are here,” he said, “is that we recognize the importance of the initiative organized by the Egyptian government to discuss wages in Egypt, particularly the discussion on plans for setting a minimum wage.” “The federation could also not give up the opportunity of learning from the experts of the ILO, who came to Egypt to provide expertise, technical assistance and a presentation about the international experience regarding the minimum wage issue and other labor issues,” he added. In a statement released Tuesday, the federation said that setting a fair and just minimum wage was one of the main demands of the Egyptian labor movement, which has organized frequent protests and strikes over the past four years because of low wages, lack of job security, rising unemployment rates, the absence of mechanisms for collective bargaining and the lack of independent representation. During the workshop, Manuela Tomei, director of the ILO's Conditions of Work and Employment Program, gave a presentation about what should be done regarding the minimum wage issue titled, “The Way Forward.” “There is a consensus about the urgency to try to come up with relatively short-term, holistic, reasonable and decent minimum wages for the sake of stability in the country,” she said. Based on what was discussed, “There is an agreement and understanding that minimum wage policy is just one element in a battery of social and economic policies that are geared towards increasing standards of living,” she added. Tomei also stressed the need for good quality data that can inform decision makers about the inflation rate, average wages and productivity. For Tomei, these are elements that are crucial in making well informed decisions and those elements have to be made equally available to all stakeholders involved. “There should be no asymmetry of information,” she said. She said that more studies are needed on how the minimum wage is linked to these issues and stressed on the need for better utilizing existing data and acknowledging some limitations of the data. According to Tomei, there are a number of dimensions that are related to the establishment of the minimum wage policy. First, there are technical dimensions like the potential impact of setting the minimum wage on inflation, and how to ensure there is a coherent relationship between the level of the minimum wage and labor productivity and how it will affect competitiveness of Egyptian products. Second, there are legal dimensions, like clearly defining who participates in the minimum wage decision. Tomei said that there may be a need to restructure the national council for wages and revise the labor law of 2003 which set some criteria on how to make adjustments to the wage. Safwat El-Nahas, president of the Central Agency for Organization and Management and chairman of the complaints committee for the High Council of Wages, said that a committee must be formed to set a maximum as well as a minimum wage policy, stressing the importance of the discussion on how the minimum wage would be funded and how to benefit from the international experience in this area. Abdel Fatah El-Gibali, advisor to the minister of finance, said that the government would address all aspects raised in ILO's assessment, focusing on the technical, legal and economic aspects and said that it would work on developing a comprehensive minimum wage policy within a short timeframe yet to be determined.
