Egypt’s Minister of Labor Hassan Raddad issued three landmark ministerial decisions, according to an official statement on Wednesday, 25 March.
Published in the Official Gazette (Al-Waqa’i Al-Masria) supplementary issue No. 64 on March 18, the decrees took effect the following day. They focus on establishing regulated nurseries in workplaces, expanding leave entitlements, and imposing strict controls on child employment and training.
The moves come in coordination with the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood, and were reviewed by the Supreme Council for Social Dialogue.
The first decision requires every employer with 100 or more female workers in a single workplace to establish an on-site nursery or contract with a licensed external nursery to care for the children of female employees under the age of four. The facility must be equipped to accommodate children with disabilities.
For smaller workplaces (fewer than 100 female workers), facilities located within a 500-meter radius may collaborate to set up a shared nursery. This provision aims to create a safe, organized environment that allows mothers to remain active in the labor market without compromising childcare.
Parents will contribute to the cost through a tiered monthly subscription deducted from the worker’s wage: 4 percent for the first child, 3 percent for the second, and 2 percent for the third. Any additional children beyond the third are covered fully by the parent.
The third decision establishes comprehensive safeguards against child labor while permitting limited, regulated training opportunities. Children under 18 may not be employed before completing basic education or reaching the age of 15 (training may begin at age 14).
Key protections include a maximum of six working hours per day, a complete ban on overtime, night work, and employment on weekly rest days or official holidays. It also includes detailed schedules of prohibited occupations, including work in mines, quarries, asphalt production, certain textile processes, and any handling of chemical materials or hazardous waste.
In the Americas, the unpaid labor of enslaved Africans generated vast wealth for European empires and laid the economic foundations of the New World, while simultaneously institutionalizing a system of racial hierarchy and racism.
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