More than 13 years ago, Maged Sabry (a pseudonym) started work as a technical employee at Helwan University, as part of the temporary workforce, which numbers more than 200 workers, in the hope of being appointed. But throughout these years, the promise that was renewed every year was never fulfilled: “You will be made permanent in the second half of the year.”
Three months ago, the workers were asked to sign new contracts containing clauses they described as “unfair”, which bar them from claiming any permanent appointment and deny them the status of employee. When they refused, they received verbal threats of dismissal and of being deprived of their salaries.
Maged points out that the old contracts included what is known as the “continuity clause”, which guarantees that the contract is renewed automatically as long as the worker keeps attending and signing the attendance registers. But after Major General Mohamed Abu Shoqa was appointed Secretary-General of the university, instructions were issued to terminate the service of all contract workers.
He tells Zawia3: “The new contracts are radically different. They stipulate that the second party (that is, us) has no right to claim appointment, and that we are not considered employees of the first party. The university has the right to convert these contracts into outsourcing or daily-wage contracts, which means that our presence is tied only to daily work demand.” He continues: “If I sign today, they can dismiss me tomorrow without warning and without any legal obligation towards us.”
He adds: “We are more than 280 employees on temporary contracts, spread across the university’s departments and faculties, including technicians, accountants, student affairs staff, workers and drivers. We receive salaries ranging between EGP 4,000 and EGP 5,000, paid from the item of special funds of a special nature. But today we are threatened with dismissal: we have been given until 1 July, after which salaries will stop, we will be asked to hand over the property in our custody, and we will be prevented from registering our attendance and departure, according to what has been conveyed to us verbally. So far, there is not a single official circular acknowledging these measures.”
Maged continues: “The administration tried to entice some colleagues financially, informing them that signing the new contracts would give them salary increases and the application of the new minimum wage, in addition to financial bonuses. And indeed, around 20 employees signed, but they quickly expressed regret and began legal steps to cancel their signatures, by appointing lawyers.”
He adds: “We discovered that other employees, who joined the university after us on temporary contracts, were appointed in 2017. Some of them started work years after us, but they were made permanent because they are the children of officials at the Ministry of Higher Education.”
Mona Ahmed (a pseudonym) suffers from the same situation. She joined the university on a temporary contract in 2013, and she affirms that the university administration tried to force them to sign new contracts that deprive them of permanent appointment, bonuses, and health and social insurance. She says: “They threatened us that 30 June would be the final deadline, after which salaries would stop and we would be prevented from registering our attendance.”
She explains to Zawia3: “There are colleagues who were contracted in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and all of us are subject to the provisions of the Civil Service Law issued in 2015 or 2016. Since 2019, we have been receiving every year a document entitled “Continuity of Contract”, instead of the direct contracts that used to be renewed automatically, and this procedure continued until 2024.”
She adds: “This year, we were told that the new contracts aim to “secure the future”, but in reality they strip away all our rights. They deprive us of permanent appointment, leave, insurance and bonuses. They even turn us into daily-wage workers, in the absence of any written official decision. That is why we filed a lawsuit to claim our rights.”
Zawia3 reviewed a copy of the new contract that the university administration is asking employees to sign. The contract stipulates that the first party, Helwan University, represented by its president or whoever legally deputises for him, concludes an agreement with the second party (the employee) to carry out job duties, and that both parties acknowledge their consent to this contract.
According to the second clause, the second party undertakes to carry out all the work assigned to him by the first party, in line with the nature of the work, and to submit periodic reports on progress. The third clause sets the duration of the contract, stressing that it is not renewed automatically but requires the explicit approval of the first party.
The fourth clause stipulates that the worker receives a “comprehensive contractual remuneration” covering all entitlements, and that this amount is subject to the taxes stipulated in Egyptian law. The fifth clause obliges the second party to perform the work accurately and honestly and to devote working hours to completing the tasks, prohibits accepting any gifts or commissions, and holds him responsible for any errors in execution.
The sixth clause of the new contract stipulates that the second party has no right to claim permanent appointment on the basis of this contract, except within the limits of the regulations and laws issued by the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration and the Ministry of Finance. It also obliges the worker not to violate any of the legal provisions, regulations or internal rules in force within the administrative unit.
The seventh clause sets out the disciplinary penalties in the event that the worker violates the requirements of job duty or appears in a manner that undermines the dignity of the post, and they include: a warning; a deduction from the comprehensive remuneration for a period not exceeding ten days at a time or thirty days a year; and a deduction of 15 days together with a warning of termination of the contract; and the matter may go as far as the final rescission of the contract.
The eighth clause sets out the cases in which the contract may be terminated, and they include: the employee requesting termination of the contract and the competent body approving it; absence from work for five consecutive days or ten non-consecutive days without an acceptable excuse; committing a violation that undermines the dignity of public office; or the end of the purpose for continuing the contract. In these cases, the body notifies the employee of the decision to terminate the contract at least one month in advance. It also stipulates that termination of the contract does not exempt the second party from any disciplinary or legal liability.
The ninth clause states that the contract is subject to the provisions of Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016, and specifies that the competent Egyptian courts are the reference in the event of any dispute relating to the interpretation or execution of the contract.
The tenth and final clause stipulates that the contract is drawn up in a single copy to be deposited in the employee’s file, and that its duration is counted as an extension of the second party’s previous period of contracting, from the start of the first contract concluded with him.
The threat of stopping treatment
Sanaa Mohamed (a pseudonym), a temporary employee at Helwan University who has breast cancer, receives her monthly treatment at the state’s expense and through health insurance, because she cannot afford the cost of treatment. Since February, she has been subjected to pressure and bargaining by the university administration, including threats to cut off her treatment if she does not sign the new contract, which she believes diminishes her rights.
Sanaa says that she began working as part of the temporary workforce at the university in 2011, then had to leave for personal reasons, before returning in January 2015 and continuing her work until now. She points out that the new contract does not include any insurance coverage, and sets the number of days of annual leave at only fifteen days, with deductions imposed for any additional absence. This is what led her to refuse to sign.
She explains to Zawia3: “Since February, we have been under constant pressure to sign the new contracts or leave work at the beginning of July. We received verbal threats from the administration, through the human resources director or the university’s Secretary-General, Major General Mohamed Abu Shoqa, stating that we will not be allowed to register our attendance and that we will be deprived of our salary, insurance and any other right. We will not even receive a dismissal letter, so that we will effectively be dismissed after more than ten years of work, without any official document.”
Turning to the courts
Meanwhile, Rania Attia chose to turn to the courts, filing a lawsuit before the Administrative Court challenging the negative decision issued by Helwan University in refraining from appointing her to a permanent post, even though she meets all the conditions stipulated in Article 73 of Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016 and Article 187 of its executive regulations, since she has been working since 2013 under official and continuous contracts, and financial and insurance forms are issued for her, which proves the employment relationship, considering that this constitutes a violation of the law and the constitution and represents an abuse of power.
Rania accuses the university’s Secretary-General of exploiting administrative arbitrariness and of threatening to rescind her government contract after 12 years of contracting, which constitutes an overreach of power against government employment contracts that cannot be rescinded, in violation of the Civil Service Law, explaining to Zawia3 the forms of arbitrariness against her, which included demanding that she hand over the property in her custody without a written administrative decision to that effect stamped with the eagle seal, stating the date of the decision, the body that issued it, the name of the custodian, the date on which she received the items and a precise description of the contents of the custody, and that she was threatened with having her July salary stopped and with being barred from entering work and signing the attendance and departure sheets, unless she signed the new contract before the deadline expired.
Article 73 of Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016 provides for the appointment of temporary and contract workers who were contracted before 30/6/2016 to the lowest grades on the fixed wages item, after at least three years have passed since their transfer to the (seasonal wages) item in Chapter One (Wages), provided that they meet the conditions for holding these posts.
Meanwhile, Article 187 of the executive regulations of Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016 deals with the conditions for appointing temporary workers in the state’s administrative apparatus, which are: that the contract was concluded before 30/6/2016; that the contract worker meets the conditions for holding the post to which they will be appointed, which means that they must have the qualifications and experience required for the post; and that the post to which they will be appointed is vacant and funded in the unit’s budget, that is, that there is an actual post available in the unit’s organisational structure.
Dr Saleh El-Sheikh, head of the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration, had announced in January 2022 that the Agency was making contract workers permanent in implementation of Article 73 of Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016, by appointing them to the lowest grades on the fixed wages item, the article which sets the rules for making permanent temporary workers who have spent at least three years in posts listed in the unit’s budget and who are subject to the Civil Service Law under Chapter One (Wages), on condition that they meet the requirements for holding those posts and were contracted before 30/6/2016.
The conditions for employing temporary workers included that the contract was concluded before 30 June 2016; reviewing the requests of units of the state’s administrative apparatus in preparation for making permanent the contract workers there who meet the requirements for holding the posts and the duties set out in the job description card of each post; the suitability of the posts on which it is proposed to make them permanent to their qualifications; and reviewing the approvals required for them to hold these posts, in addition to matching the national ID numbers of those proposed for permanent appointment with the labour and wages database to ensure that none of them holds a job at another body, that none of them has reached retirement age, and also that they are still in service.
They also include making permanent the contract workers under Chapter One, whether those contracted before the date of the contracting ban, which is 1 May 2012 under Law No. 19 of 2012, or those contracted after the date of the ban, on 30 June 2016; making permanent the contract workers under Chapters “Two, Four and Six”, whether contracted before or after the ban, after their contractual form is amended from these chapters to Chapter One within the same period referred to; making permanent the contract workers under the special funds and accounts who were contracted before the contracting ban law referred to; and the circular on those made permanent under the independent section regarding transfer, secondment and loan to bodies that have special funds.
The General Assembly of the Fatwa and Legislation Departments of the State Council, headed by Counsellor Fares Fam, had previously issued a legal opinion affirming that administrative bodies are bound by the provisions of Law No. 19 of 2012, which banned contracting on the seasonal wages item after the date of its issuance and required posts to be filled on a permanent basis, out of concern for regularising the status of temporary workers contracted before this ban took effect, through Article 73 of the Civil Service Law.
The legal opinion set out controls for appointment, including that the contract was concluded before 30 June 2016, that the contract workers meet the conditions required to hold the posts, that those posts are vacant and funded in the budget of the administrative unit, and that official copies of all contracts concluded since the start of contracting be submitted, together with the financial disbursement forms for the entire contract period, provided that all documents are signed by the unit’s financial controller, in preparation for their approval by the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration.
Manipulation by government bodies
For his part, human rights lawyer Malek Adly, director of the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, believes that the crisis facing temporary workers at the public Helwan University is not only at odds with the law but at odds with humanity in general, considering that this has become the approach of a number of government bodies and state-owned institutions in general, which have come to prey on temporary workers, exploiting their need for work and their hope of obtaining a permanent government job in search of job security.
He tells Zawia3: “This is neither legal nor constitutional. The wages these temporary workers receive are lower than the minimum wage approved by the government itself, which is a crime in itself. On top of that, they are deprived of part of their rights, such as insurance and leave balances, and the worker remains under threat of dismissal all the time; these are “humiliating rules”. When these are the contracts of the state, the contracts of state-owned bodies and the contracts of bodies that we fund from our taxes, what then will private-sector contracts be like?”
He adds: “As long as you have concluded an employment contract, it must comply with the law and give people their rights, whether on the basis of the Civil Service Law or the Labour Law. As for the question of permanent appointment or not, the law recognises the existence of fixed-term and open-ended contracts. What reality produces, however, is manipulation by government bodies, because they do not have sufficient budgets for these workers; they have no budgets for fair wages and fair benefits, whereas the reason people turn to government work is the search for the highest degree of job security, a decent minimum wage, and social and health insurance.”
Adly believes that some government employers do not have sufficient budgets to grant a certain number of workers job benefits, so they resort to such humiliating contracts, paying wages below the minimum, granting less leave than the legal leave entitlement and depriving them of social security (social and health insurance), and then they begin to enslave them, describing this as a form of human trafficking, which may be understandable in the private sector and under savage capitalism, but cannot be understood in the government sector, which is supposed to set an example in good management and in giving workers their rights.
He continues: “People, driven by poverty and the need to earn a living, accept any job, but what is actually happening is that this has become a door to the exploitation of human beings. As long as there are no clear restrictions preventing government agencies from employing people with benefits lower than those of the Civil Service Law and lower than the minimum wage, this situation will continue, because the government sector has become not much different from a private sector that sucks the blood of workers.”
The director of the Egyptian Center advises the affected temporary workers to turn to the complaint bodies, foremost among them: the Council of Ministers, members of parliament, the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Higher Education and the Supreme Council of Universities, because all of these bodies have a connection with what is happening inside this institution.
Meanwhile, labour and human rights lawyer Haitham Mohamedein affirms that the temporary workers at Helwan University are supposed to be public employees of the state, given that Helwan University is affiliated with the Ministry of Higher Education, so their situation differs from that of the private sector, and that the law stipulated that everyone who had spent three years in their job on “item one wages” before the law was issued is to be made permanent and appointed, and this condition applies to them and they should have been made permanent. This item means that workers and employees who work in state institutions but whose salaries are paid from outside the state budget, that is, from the budget of each institution, and whose salaries are not paid by the Ministry of Finance, used to be considered temporary, and when the Civil Service Law was issued, it stipulated that they be made permanent as long as they had spent three years in their job on “item Chapter One wages” before the law was issued.
He tells Zawia3: “It is a great tragedy for the state, too, to turn to practices resembling those of the private sector, and to treat sections of its employees as temporary labour in order to deprive workers of seniority and length of service, and also to deprive them of the incentives and allowances linked to promotion and wage accumulation, turning them into temporary workers on a remuneration system. This makes it easy to dismiss them and easy to cancel their contracts, and does not allow wages to accumulate or seniority allowances to be obtained. Under the new contracts, they are not promoted according to seniority because their tenure is temporary, and this causes two crises: the absence of job security, and the lack of accumulation and growth of wages for employees and workers.”
Violating 5 articles of the Civil Service Law
Explaining the situation, Hassan El-Barbary, a researcher on labour issues and secretary of the workers’ office of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, says that temporary workers in Egypt face extremely harsh conditions, especially when they work for state bodies, amid the state’s continued disregard for their basic rights, while the state is supposed to be the role model in respecting the law and guaranteeing social justice, which represents a major problem, indicating that the most important problems temporary workers suffer from are the lack of job security, as they are threatened with expulsion or termination of their contracts at any time and without any justification, the absence of adequate insurance such as health and social insurance and pensions, and deprivation of basic rights such as sick leave.
He tells Zawia3: “Instead of the state seeking to make permanent the workers who have met the conditions, we find that it forces them to continue working under this unjust situation, which represents a violation of the principle of equal opportunity that should be the foundation of any state that respects its laws. In the case of the Helwan University workers specifically, the university has violated a number of laws and explicit articles of the Civil Service Law and its executive regulations.”
He adds: “What happened to the Helwan University workers is a clear injustice and an explicit violation of the Civil Service Law and its regulations, a large part of which supports their position. Daily-wage contracts mostly do not include any insurance, which means that if the worker is injured, falls ill or grows old, he has no protection, and in the case of the employee with cancer, these contracts strip her of any form of legal protection.”
El-Barbary explains that the university violated Article (4) of the Civil Service Law, which guarantees the citizen’s right to hold government posts on the basis of equality, justice and equal opportunity, without any discrimination, as the university forced temporary workers to sign daily contracts, which deprives them of their rights and establishes discrimination against them compared with permanent workers, which contravenes the principle of equality stipulated in the article. It also violated Article (9) of the law, which stipulates that appointment to government posts must be on a permanent financial grade, not by a daily or monthly contract, whereas the university did not even seek to provide financial grades for these workers, which is the very essence of its role, but instead placed them at the mercy of a temporary system lacking any security.
The labour researcher also accuses Helwan University of violating Article (14) of the law, which obliges the state to define the posts that are permanent in nature and to clarify how appointments to them are made, while the university has not announced permanent posts for these workers, nor tried to integrate them into its administrative structure, even though they are actually working and filling an existing shortage there. It also violated Article (73) of the executive regulations, which stipulates that a temporary worker who was working before 30 June 2016 and continued in their job for three years has the right to be made permanent on financial grades, whereas the Helwan University workers have been working for many years, and there is a financial allocation and appropriations for them, yet the university has not made them permanent; on the contrary, it has downgraded their status and imposed daily contracts on them. It also violated Article (119) of the executive regulations, which stipulates the need to insure anyone who works on a temporary basis and to provide them with social insurance.
Fragile labour relations
Labour leader Kamal Abu Eita, former Minister of Manpower, considers that matters are now heading towards even worse conditions for workers in Egypt, fragile labour relations and the absence of the job security that workers enjoyed in earlier periods. Moreover, the largest share of the workforce in Egypt has become irregular labour, and there is an informal economy in the country that rivals the formal economy, whose workers are outside social protection and outside any protection, and they are, unfortunately, the largest share of workers in Egypt now. There are now workers who work without contracts, work without pay and work in forced labour, which is an unequal relationship resembling the relationship of bondage or slavery in bygone times.
He tells Zawia3: “It is sad that workers’ rights are being stripped away these days in Egypt, great in its honourable history and in the rights that workers have won through the history of their struggle and fight, and after the two revolutions that Egypt carried out, in which workers were an essential part, and which expressed a broad national project with a social dimension in which multiple social forces also took part, with workers at their forefront.. We lack the right to safe work, and most of our workers are outside the scope of job security, outside the scope of social protection, and outside the scope of the social and health insurance that we built and obtained even with the 23 July Revolution.”
He adds: “I believe that even the latest legislation, most unfortunately, did not address any of the shortcomings of the old legislation; rather, it diminished their historical and legitimate rights. Most unfortunately, we have been deprived of the right to trade union organisation. Trade union organisation, which is supposed to defend regular and irregular workers and to be a vessel for workers’ power, is now treated like terrorist organisations, bearing in mind that the legislation that came, and which we drafted with our own hands with the two revolutions, allowed freedom of trade union organisation that protects workers’ rights, demands their increase, develops them and struggles for them.”
Amid a stifling economic crisis whose repercussions weigh on inflation rates and the prices of goods and services, more than 200 temporary male and female employees at Helwan University face the risk of dismissal and lay-off from jobs they have held for ten years or more, without job security or guaranteed legal rights. Their testimonies to Zawia3 reveal that what they are being subjected to is not limited to administrative ambiguity or financial mismanagement, but is a crude expression of intransigence and the abuse of power to pressure the weakest links in the government work system, by forcing them to sign contracts that strip them of the status of public employee and deprive them of the right to permanent appointment, insurance and the minimum of professional dignity.
Despite the clarity of the legal texts that protect their rights, and the oversight bodies’ affirmations that those contracted before 30 June 2016 are entitled to permanent appointment, reality says the opposite; the facts point to a recurring pattern of neglect, discrimination and administrative manipulation, which not only threatens workers’ rights but undermines the very idea of social justice at its root.
In the end, it can be said that what is happening at Helwan University, as lawyers and labour experts say, is not merely a violation of the law, but a violation of the principle of citizenship and the right to decent work, and it calls for urgent intervention by the state to do justice to those who have served it for years, not to terminate their contracts without just cause.
