{"id":17381,"date":"2025-08-18T11:37:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/?p=17381"},"modified":"2026-10-07T23:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T21:53:14","slug":"workers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/workers-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Lives on Scaffolding, Rights on Paper: Egypt\u2019s Construction Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid brick dust and cement, Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 42, starts another day in an unforgiving occupation. He moves between construction sites without a written contract securing his entitlements and, he says, without equipment adequate to protect him from injury.<\/p>\n

Abdel Hamid is a pseudonym used at his request. A resident of Greater Cairo, he has spent years mixing cement, carrying bricks and climbing scaffolding through summer heat and winter cold. He describes long hours, inadequate breaks and no dependable health coverage if he is hurt.<\/p>\n

Many workers in the sector are hired by the day, with little documentation of wages, working time or responsibility for injuries. The lack of a written contract does not itself extinguish legal rights, but it can make those rights harder to prove and enforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cA labourer\u2019s daily pay ranges from EGP 150 to EGP 200, and transport comes out of that,\u201d Abdel Hamid says. \u201cWe start at first light, and sometimes the work does not finish until eight or nine at night, especially if the site is far away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some companies insure workers, he adds, but in his experience many labourers work for contractors without coverage. \u201cIf you are injured, the contractor might help you\u2014or might abandon you.\u201d Falls from scaffolding, he says, can cause death or life-changing injuries.<\/p>\n

The testimony gathered by Zawia3 describes insecurity in subcontracted work and on larger projects alike. It does not establish that every construction employer follows the same practices, but points to gaps in protection that workers and unionists say remain widespread.<\/p>\n

Construction includes many workers classified as irregular labour. Labour Law 14 of 2025<\/a> defines an irregular worker by the non-permanent nature of the work or an occupation not governed by a special law. The category does not mean every person employed in construction necessarily has the same legal status.<\/p>\n

The original report cited a ministry administrative figure of 1,164,120 irregular workers, alongside union estimates of 12\u201314 million. Administrative registration and an estimate of the whole workforce measure different populations and should not be treated as directly competing census totals.<\/p>\n

A World Bank article published in June 2023<\/a> cited an informal-employment rate of 62.5% for Egypt. Informal employment is a broader statistical concept than the number of irregular workers recorded for a particular ministry programme.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/div>\n

From the scaffolding to the journey home<\/h2>\n

Hamdy Mahmoud, head of the independent construction and woodworkers\u2019 union, describes the devastating consequences of a serious accident. In his account, workers who survive with disabilities can lose their livelihood while receiving little support.<\/p>\n

Mahmoud, who lives in Alexandria, says a working day is supposed to run from about 8am to 4pm with a break, but in practice ends when the contractor decides. He describes arrangements imposed largely by one side, with little bargaining power for labourers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a worker gets sick or injured at work, he often does not get paid,\u201d he says. Daily hiring and weak documentation, in his view, leave workers especially exposed during illness or after an accident.<\/p>\n

Pay varies by location and task. Mahmoud puts an ordinary labourer\u2019s daily earnings at up to around EGP 250, rising to approximately EGP 400 for a skilled tradesperson. Transport and sometimes food must be paid from that amount. These are reported wage examples, not a nationwide wage schedule.<\/p>\n

\n

A day\u2019s quoted wage can conceal both the cost of getting to the site and the risk of losing all income when injury prevents the worker from returning.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mahmoud says the lack of effective health, social and injury protection is not confined to small contractors. He reports poor conditions on major projects as well, including sites without adequate toilets, rest areas or first-aid provision.<\/p>\n

He criticises inspection and says workers rarely see anyone checking actual safety conditions. He also describes restrictions on independent unions that, in his view, obstruct their ability to organise and provide services.<\/p>\n

A different emphasis appeared in May 2025 remarks by Abdel Moneim El Gamal<\/a>, head of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation. He said irregular workers were being brought within social-protection arrangements and highlighted the new labour law\u2019s provisions. The contrast is between announced frameworks and workers\u2019 accounts of what they experience.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/div>\n

Contributions paid, workers left unregistered<\/h2>\n

Kamal Abbas, general coordinator of the Center for Trade Union and Workers Services, argues that money can be paid into insurance arrangements without securing protection for the people actually on site.<\/p>\n

He describes cases in which a property developer pays contributions connected with a construction project, but the names recorded do not correspond to the labourers doing the work. His example refers to thirty workers; it is not a universal statutory rule that every building permit requires precisely thirty insured employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho are those thirty?\u201d Abbas asks. He alleges that some lists contain fictitious names or people who are not working at the site. If the actual worker is injured or killed without being registered, he says, the family struggles to establish an entitlement.<\/p>\n

These allegations concern practices described by Abbas, rather than a finding that every project\u2019s insurance records are false. His proposed remedy is a system that identifies the real workforce and connects each person to their actual employment.<\/p>\n

Abbas calls for the Labour Ministry to prioritise organising informal workers and ensuring effective coverage. Large project locations are known, he says, including the New Administrative Capital and national infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

\n

Work cards could record where each labourer works, for how long, at what wage and with which insurance entitlements, Abbas proposes. Unions could help identify and register workers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He points to the cash support announced during the COVID-19 pandemic, including EGP 500 payments, but argues that the reach of official lists was small compared with the wider workforce. His account illustrates the problem of incomplete records; the interview does not establish a single comparable beneficiary total covering all pandemic payment rounds.<\/p>\n

Without regularly updated data, he says, assistance and insurance cannot reliably reach those who need them. He also criticises inspections that rely on company-provided paperwork rather than visits to observe unregistered workers and unsafe conditions.<\/p>\n

Article 17 of Egypt\u2019s Constitution requires the state to provide social-insurance services and social security for eligible people unable to support themselves, including in cases of incapacity, old age and unemployment. It also addresses appropriate pensions for groups including small farmers, agricultural workers, fishers and irregular workers, as regulated by law.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/div>\n

Can universal health insurance reach them?<\/h2>\n

In September 2018, a Health Ministry decision<\/a> extended health-insurance arrangements to workers in contracting, construction, quarries and saltworks. The measure was presented as part of an expansion in protection for irregular labour.<\/p>\n

Interviewees say implementation has remained constrained by registration gaps, weak coordination and inadequate information about the workers concerned. Announcing eligibility and securing reliable access are different steps.<\/p>\n

Alaa Ghannam, director of the right-to-health programme at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, identifies incomplete workforce data as a central obstacle. Daily labourers, he says, are left dependent on market demand and contractors who determine wages and conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are treated as a commodity,\u201d he says, describing people without meaningful insurance who face substantial occupational risks, especially injuries.<\/p>\n

Ghannam sees the universal health-insurance system as an opportunity to include irregular workers and their families. He advocates organising workers through representative associations or unions, registering them and establishing workable mechanisms for contributions, including arrangements involving contractors.<\/p>\n

He stresses the family-based design of the scheme and the state\u2019s responsibility to pay for people assessed as unable to afford contributions. Presenting a national identity card is part of registration, but it should not be understood as providing immediate nationwide access irrespective of the scheme\u2019s phased rollout and eligibility procedures.<\/p>\n

Despite weaknesses in implementation, Ghannam believes the system can provide care on equitable terms if registration, assessment and service delivery work properly. He views that process as part of wider social and financial inclusion.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/div>\n

A new law\u2014and the implementation still ahead<\/h2>\n

At this article\u2019s publication on 18 August 2025, Labour Law 14 of 2025 had been promulgated but was not yet in force. Its general commencement date was 1 September 2025. The provisions below therefore describe the new framework and the challenge of implementing it, not evidence that those provisions had already been applied.<\/p>\n

Article 77 requires the competent authority to identify and register irregular workers in paper or electronic records, build national databases and connect them with relevant state bodies, including CAPMAS and the National Organization for Social Insurance. Article 78 establishes a dedicated emergency-assistance and social and health-services fund.<\/p>\n

Under Article 79, the fund\u2019s functions include emergency support during crises, disasters, epidemics and temporary unemployment; health and social services; help with medical costs; and contributions towards social-insurance payments, subject to resources and coordination with the relevant bodies.<\/p>\n

Labour researcher Hassan Barbary warns that the framework will encounter a large workforce lacking official files or records. He says repeated promises of a comprehensive register have not yet produced an accurate, inclusive system.<\/p>\n

Limited organising capacity compounds that problem, in his assessment. Workers face serious risks without effective mechanisms for protection or strong representation capable of pressing their demands.<\/p>\n

Barbary refers to an insurance initiative he recalls from 2019 and says its benefit was only EGP 9,000. The interview does not identify the policy or its terms sufficiently to establish that amount as a verified entitlement. His point is that many workers remain unaware of, or unable to access, arrangements announced in their name.<\/p>\n

He also argues that wage floors, payment of earnings and end-of-service entitlements lack effective enforcement in construction, particularly in subcontracting. This concerns practical enforcement, not a claim that workers necessarily have no legal entitlement because they are paid by the day.<\/p>\n

Barbary recalls seeing workers painting Cairo University\u2019s perimeter wall in August\u2019s heat with cardboard over their heads and no adequate protective equipment. For him, the scene captures the distance between formal promises and the conditions in which people continue to work.<\/p>\n

\n

For workers on the scaffolding, protection is measured by what happens before an accident\u2014and by whether wages, treatment and support remain available afterwards.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The interviews point to a persistent gap between announced inclusion and daily employment. Closing it requires more than recognising irregular workers in legislation: the people doing the work must be registered, represented and able to obtain the protections promised to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction workers describe low daily wages, unsafe sites and gaps in insurance, while unionists question whether legal promises will translate into protection on the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[390],"tags":[],"kateb":[728],"class_list":["post-17381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","kateb-shimaa-hamdy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u0639\u0645\u0627\u0644-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17381"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17382,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17381\/revisions\/17382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17381"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=17381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}