Egyptian women obtained many gains and job guarantees from the new draft labor law submitted by the government to the House of Representatives, within the Egyptian state’s efforts to empower women in various fields.
In his statement, Legal Expert Mahmoud Al-Hadidi touched on the most important gains for women in the new draft labor law.
Al-Hadidi told Al-Watan that the new draft labor law includes many gains for working women through which they can achieve job security. It also specifies controls that guarantee their rights at work.
He proceeded to list the most prominent of these gains, which include:
- Prohibiting the dismissal of a worker, or terminating her service during maternity leave.
- The worker has the right to obtain maternity leave for a period of four months, including the period before and after the birth, provided that the duration of this leave after the birth is not less than 45 days. This leave is paid, and the worker is not entitled to this leave more than twice throughout her period of service.
- The worker has the right to obtain unpaid leave for a period not exceeding two years, in order to care for her child. She is not entitled to this leave more than three times throughout her period of service, but on the condition that the establishment employs 25 or more workers.
- Determining the circumstances, occasions, times, and jobs in which women are not permitted to be employed, based on a decision issued by the competent minister after taking the opinion of the National Council for Women and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.
- All provisions regulating the employment of workers apply to working women, without discrimination, as long as their working conditions are similar.
The legal expert added that there are some controls specified by the draft law between female employees and the institutions in which they work, to ensure the preservation of rights and duties, including:
- The employer has the right to deny her compensation for her wages that he is obligated to pay for the period of leave, or to recover what was paid from her if it is proven that she worked during the leave for someone else, without prejudice to disciplinary accountability.
- If the employer hires female workers, he must post in the workplace or workers’ gathering a copy of the women’s employment regulations.
- An employer who hires 100+ female workers in one place must establish a nursery, or entrust a nursery to care for the female workers’ children, according to the terms and conditions determined by a decision of the competent minister.
- The worker may terminate the employment contract due to her marriage, pregnancy, or childbirth, provided that she notifies the employer in writing of her desire to do so within three months from the date of concluding the marriage contract, proving the pregnancy, or from the date of the birth.
