EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohamed Hashish, Heba El Abd, Mariam Rabie, Mohamed Selim and Abdelaziz Mohamed, Soliman, Hashish & Partners
damages suffered, in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code. In addition, under the Labour Law, where an employ - er terminates a fixed-term employment contract that was concluded or renewed for a period exceeding five years, the employee shall be entitled to a sev - erance gratuity equivalent to one month’s salary for each completed year of service. Termination of a Permanent Employment Contract An employer shall not have the right to terminate a permanent employment contract unless the employee commits a Gross Misconduct. The employer has the burden of proving that the employee has committed a Gross Misconduct. Furthermore, should the employer intend to terminate a permanent employment contract, they are required to provide the employee with notice. The Labour Law establishes a standardised notice period for the ter - mination of permanent contracts, set at three months, irrespective of the employee’s length of service. According to the Labour Law, if the employer termi - nates a permanent employment without proof of any Gross Misconduct by the employee, the said employ - ee shall be entitled to compensation equivalent to the salary of at least two months for each year of service in addition to any other financial entitlements (if any). Employees, under the Labour Law, shall be entitled to terminate the contract if the employer fails to fulfil a significant obligation arising from the Labour Law, the individual or collective employment contract, or the establishment’s regulations. Furthermore, termination is permissible if the employee or their relatives expe - rience assault by the employer or their representa - tives. In such instances, the termination is regarded as equivalent to dismissal by the employer without just cause. Accordingly, the employee will be entitled to compensation for unfair termination, in addition to other financial entitlements. Termination of Employment Due to Redundancy or Closure of the Establishment Under the Labour Law, the employer shall have the right to completely or partially shut down the organisa -
tion or reduce its size by terminating the employment contracts of a number of employees to mitigate any economic crisis, provided that (i) a downsizing request is submitted to the competent authority for approval; and (ii) the competent syndication and the employees shall be notified of both the downsizing request and approval. In this case, a dismissed employee shall be entitled to the following end-of-service indemnity: • an indemnity equivalent to one month of their sal - ary for the first five years; and • an indemnity equivalent to one month and a half of their salary for the remaining period. Should the employer fail to obtain the necessary approval from the competent authorities for the down - sizing and proceed to reduce its size by terminating the employment contracts of several employees, those employees shall be entitled to monetary com - pensation, as such terminations will be considered unfair dismissals. 4.5 Employee Representations The Egyptian Trade Union Law No 213 of 2017 grants the employees of an establishment the full right to establish, join or withdraw from a union committee, in accordance with the applicable Egyptian laws and internal regulations of the relevant union committee. In order for a union committee to acquire legal person - ality and to be able to exercise its activities, it should be formed of at least 50 employees. As of the date on which the required documents are provided to the relevant administrative authority and provided that the establishment conditions are fully satisfied, the union committee shall be considered to be legally estab - lished under the Trade Union Law. The union committee shall be entitled to directly exer - cise and manage the following matters with the rel - evant employer: • resolving individual and collective disputes relating to their members; • concluding collective labour agreements at the enterprise level;
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