Cairo: 9 September 2018

The Freedom of Expression for Labor and Social Movements program of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), in cooperation with “Private Sectors Trade Union” (under establishment), held on Friday 7 September 2018 a training course for developing the skills of labor leaders.

The training began with an introduction on the labor union and its role in accordance with the provisions of the Trade Union Organizations Law and the Right to Organize No. 213 of 2017, which was introduced by Shaaban Khalifa, a Labor leader and the General Coordinator of the Private Sectors Trade Union.

The course’s first session began with a lecture on the labor union’s sectors and formations delivered by the trade union trainer and organizer Talal Shukr. He began by defining “Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize” as one of the aspects of public freedoms and pointed out that the it is enshrined in the international conventions and agreements ratified by Egypt. Most notably of which are Convention No. 87 of 1948, Convention No. 98 of 1949 and the two International Covenants on Human Rights.

Then he gave a definition of what the labor union, is, its role and formation, clearly stating that it is primarily formed from the “General Conference” and the Executive Board (Board of Directors). He also said that through the Executive Board, unions can be represented as auxiliary bodies to facilitate the union’s daily work and to ensure efficiency and good communication with union members.

He also mentioned in particular: who the members of the General Assembly or the General Conference are, when General Assembly is convened, who is entitled to call for its meeting, who runs its meetings and the conditions that make meetings valid. Additionally, he explained in detail what the executive board is, when it can be held, the quorum that is required for the validity of its meeting, and how decisions are made within it.

Then he defined the Executive Office, saying that it is a body elected by the Executive Council to manage the day-to-day work in the trade union organization, and resumed his talk about the Office’s terms of reference and formations.

Afterward, Mohamed Abdel-Salam, lawyer and the head of ANHRI’s Freedom of Expression for Labor and Social Movements program, made a  speech about the tasks assigned to the Office’s members.

In the second session, Talal Shukr addressed the issue of keeping the administrative and financial archives and books. In this regard he said “Like any institution, a trade union organization has to store a number of trade union records, papers and files in order save the information and data of its members as well as the financial data, how they banked up revenues and expenditure, and how the organization managed to balance up its revenues with its expenditure”. He added, “Meetings minutes are considered the trade union’s memory of the subjects and decisions issued by the trade union organization”.

The meeting concluded with a number of questions, discussions, and comments, including a question about reconciliation, and what a union leader should have done when the labor directorates refused to receive the required documents from several independent unions.

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