CAIRO: The Egyptian ministry of manpower and immigration revealed the total number of Egyptians working in the UAE, officially registered in the ministry payroll, is estimated at 260,000 Egyptian workers in all disciplines and registered in documented contracts that obliges the ministry as party to the contracts and to follow-up with the work contracts, including transcripts between institutions and various companies there. The numbers reported come as the ministry continues to battle with Gulf employers who have laid off thousands of Egyptians as the financial crisis in Dubai continues. The media center of the ministry also announced that there are intense discussions currently underway with the UAE labor advisor to determine the “negative decisions” of the demobilization of the Egyptian labor force because of the economic crisis that has hit the UAE stock market by limiting the number of workers that were laid off from work sites. The ministry said it does not have a total number for all Egyptian workers in UAE due to the spread of informal employment contracts and non-regular employment of those working on a seasonal basis, depending on the needs and demands for various industries in the Emirati market. The ministry said that more specialists were affected by the financial crisis and are concentrated in the UAE construction sector and tourism sector. The ministry confirmed that education is the area least affected by the crisis, where the proportion of layoffs will be less compared to the industries directly linked to the economy of the UAE. On the other hand, Mustafa Manji, Vice President of the Federation of Egyptian Workers stressed that the Federation has not received any complaint from Egyptian workers in the UAE. According to the exposure to compulsory lay-offs of the work he noted that “the union's role is to take care of all Egyptian workers who are members of trade and labor unions in Egypt and that the federation has no legal authority over employment outside the border.” He added that the role of the federation in regards to Egyptians working abroad is limited “to monitoring complaints submitted to the members of the Federation of Egyptian workers abroad and then the union addresses the government agencies to conduct negotiations over the files of the infringement of labor rights.” Manji added that the federation has formed a committee to follow up on the negotiations of the ministry with a legal position and “to provide protective cover to them after investigations of various rights of workers to restore their rights after the attacks they have suffered.” BM
