President El-Sisi Announces a Number of Decisions Marking Labor Day 

Yesterday, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attended Labor Day celebration. Marking the occasion, the President announced a number of decisions:

-To create an emergency relief fund for irregular employment. Social and health accounts dues shall be transferred to it, thus they would be invested and used in emergencies and crises for irregular workers in a sustainable manner. This, in turn, would help maximize the social and developmental return of the fund.

-To start activating the fund immediately once all legal procedures are completed by disbursing emergency funding of 1,000 Egyptian Pounds for irregular workers, who do not benefit from social protection programs.

-To issue a new document, “Aman” certificate, which was previously issued in 2017 to cover life insurance and work injuries for irregular workers.

-To stress on all private sector establishments, the public sector and the public business sector, to employ persons with disabilities to represent 5% of their workforce, as per the law, and to continue working on developing their skills and integrating them into the labor market.

-To have the Supreme Council for Social Dialogue in the field of employment study the draft labor law presented to the House of Representatives, in the presence of workers’ and employers’ representatives, and agree on its final version. This shall guarantee that workers’ rights are preserved and ensure a work environment that is conducive to investment.

-To promote compliance with international labor standards and ensure that labor legislation and its implementation comply with international labor conventions ratified by Egypt.

-To have the Ministry of Manpower launch the national platform for labor market information, expeditiously.

-To have ministries and concerned authorities, in coordination with the private sector, rapidly finalize the procedures aimed at achieving gender equality in the field of employment; ensuring a safe work environment; increasing women’s employment rates, integrating them into the labor market and developing their skills; and protecting working women and ensuring that they strike a balance between their job requirements and family duties. These efforts are part of endeavors to activate the national plan for gender equality in the field of employment that was launched in 2022.

-To launch a national campaign to improve the mental image in society of the value and importance of work for the individual and society, and encourage young people to integrate themselves into self-employment and entrepreneurship and to establish their small, medium and micro enterprises.

-Ministries and concerned authorities shall prepare for future jobs, identify the required occupations in the future labor market and the skills needed for them, and work to develop human resources skills, commensurate with the future of jobs and the needs of the labor market.