MINISTER of Manpower Nahed Al-Ashri said yesterday that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) had agreed to remove Egypt from its blacklist of states that violate international labour conventions.

Mr Nashri claimed that Egypt respected such agreements and had sent a delegation to the ILO representing the Ministry of Manpower, the Egyptian Trade Union Federation and the Union of Chambers of Commerce.

As a result, the committee sitting in Geneva had agreed to remove Egypt from the list.

The delegation lobbied several ILO officials, insisting that a law granting trade union freedoms would be discussed again following parliamentary elections.

Egyptian Trade Union Federation chairman Gebali Al-Meraghi claimed the delegation had shown that workers enjoyed real freedoms and democracy.

“They lifted Egypt’s name from the list of countries kept under observation … because Egypt does not violate workers’ legitimate rights,” the chairman of the government-linked federation insisted.

However, Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions executive member Fatma Ramadan accused the government of “leading a conspiracy” against Egyptian workers.

“The reasons behind putting Egypt on the blacklist haven’t changed,” she said. “Workers now face many restrictions before they can start any action or protest to demand their rights.

“In addition to the law criminalising strikes and sit-ins, there is also the law banning demonstrations issued this year,” she said.

“I don’t know what changes the ILO experts have detected in the current situation that have made them change their minds.”