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Termination of employment in Egypt
The relation between an employer and an employee in Egypt is organized by the Labor Law No. 12 for 2003. This law organizes the full relation between the employee and the workplace and one of the main obstacles and issues that always appear in the front lines is the employment termination.
Cases in which an employee be terminated from work
Article 69 discusses cases that the employee be terminated from work and its stated that the employee shall not be terminated except if he/she permitted a serious error in work and they are:
If it is established that the worker has assumed a false identity or submitted false documents;
If it is established that the worker has committed an error resulting in serious damages to the employer, providing the employer shall notify the event to the competent authorities within twenty-four hours from the time he learns of its occurrence;
If , despite warning the worker in writing to observe the instructions necessary to be followed for the safety of workers and the establishment, he repeats non observing them, providing they are issued in writing and put up at a prominent place;
If the worker absents himself without legitimate justification more than twenty intermittent days during the same year, or more than consecutive days, providing a written warning to the worker by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, ten days after his absence in the first case, and five days after his absence in the second case, shall recede his discharge;
If it is established that the worker has divulged the secrets of the establishment at which he works, leading to the occurrence of serious damages and harms to the establishment;
If the worker embarks on competing with the employer in the same activity;
If during the workers’ hours the worker found to be state of plain drunkenness, or affected by the intoxicating substance he consumed;
If it is established that he worker has aggressed against the employer or the general director, or also if he commits a serious aggression on any of his superiors or due to work;
If the worker does not observe the controls prescribed in Articles 192 -194 of Book-4, of the present Law (which mainly discuss the strikes regulations).
Individual disputes
Article 70 of the Labor Law clarifies the settlement of individual settlement arising between the worker and the employer may be requested within ten (10) days as of the date on which the dispute has arisen; A Labor Court comprising:
A representative of the administrative entity concerned;
A representative of the syndical organization and a representative of employers’ organization to resolve such dispute via amicable channels.
If the dispute is not resolved within twenty one days as of the submitting the request for resolution then either party may ask the administrative entity concerned to refer the dispute to the labor court, or may resort to the labor court within at most forty five days as of the lase of the time limit specified for the dispute resolution, whether such party has submitted a resolution request to the labor court or not, otherwise such party shall forfeit the right of referring the dispute to the court.
The labor court shall summarily decide on the employer’s request of dismissing the worker, within fifteen (15) days as of the first session date, by means of an enforceable court ruling even if such ruling is to be appealed. In case the court declines the dismissal request, then it shall order that the worker should resume his work and that the employer should pay all the worker’s dues which have not been distributed to him.
Indemnity in case of unjustified termination
Article 122 discusses indemnity in case of unjustified termination and it states that if either party terminates the contract without legitimate and adequate justification, he shall compensate the other party for the harm occasioned to him in consequence of such termination.
If such unjustified termination is by the employer, the worker shall have the right to resort the labor court requesting compensation. Such compensation as shall be determined by the labor court shall not be less than the wage of two months of the comprehensive wage for each of the year of service.
The Egyptian Labor Law separated between the definite employment contracts and indefinite employments contracts. In the definite employment contracts the employer has the right to terminate the contract upon the expiry date and the above reasons of termination fully applied on the indefinite employment contracts and only applied in the definite employment contracts in case of early termination only.
Talented Hands Consultant in this part highlighted the termination in contracts and in our next articles regarding labor law we will highlight the dismissal, probation and employee contracts in order to help organizations and employees to navigate through the Egyptian Labor Law.