Achieving better compliance with national labour standards

Compliance with national labour standards cannot be achieved by implementing fragmented interventions. A substantial number of violations were recorded and reported annually by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) Labour and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) inspectors across Egypt due to a multitude of reasons like the unawareness of inspectors and employers of the labour code check points, lack of unification of the inspection check points and consequent procedures. To be added to the list, the shortage of efficient legal and technical background of inspectors, and lack of coordination between employers and workers representatives.

Inspection Checklists

In this respect, the ILO Exports Project not only developed a unified training plan and comprehensive training toolkits for inspectors, but also created a comprehensive detailed legal guidance; “Inspection Checklists” that have served as a reference for all the required compliance points in conformity with the Egyptian Labour Code that can be easily used by employers, workers and inspectors.

OSH and Labour Inspection Checklists will be disseminated and used by all inspectors across Egypt to ensure better efficient and effective inspection visits and better compliance on behalf of employers."

Mr. Mohamed Safaan, Minister of Manpower

The training enhanced inspectors’ technical and legal expertise, that enabled them to provide better advices for employers and accordingly reach better compliance with the Labour Code. While the inspection checklists were advantageous in improving structured and unified inspection visits, they enabled employers to conduct a self-auditing mechanism for their companies and better achieve conformity themselves. Furthermore, the checklists provided a well articulated framework of duties and rights of employers versus employees.

During the second half of 2016, MOM posted OSH and Labour inspection checklists on the Ministry’s official website to ensure employers and potential investors’ easy and free access to the check points required to comply with national labour code. In a more progressive step, the Ministry intends to disseminate them to inspection offices across the country in all sectors and among factories of all sizes and not only exporting industrial zones.

One of the most manifested examples of collaboration and tripartite joint efforts for better compliance with national labour standards is with the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI). FEI started to disseminate the checklists to its members since April, to better enhance their compliance mechanism. In cooperation with 10th of Ramadan, 6 of October and Alexandria Business Associations, FEI managed to conduct a number of workshops that targeted more than 550 employer and trade union representatives via MOM inspectors.