Financial hardship at home led 12-year-old Mahmoud Hamdi to start working in a timber workshop in an industrial area, near his little village in Sohag in southern Egypt. Hamdi sustained a work injury that led to the amputation of his arm, causing him to remain disabled for the rest of his life. Hospitals refused to treat him because he did not have health insurance, and his employer got away with not covering the cost of his treatment under the pretext of not having a binding work contract.

Financial hardship at home led 12-year-old Mahmoud Hamdi to start working in a timber workshop in an industrial area, near his little village in Sohag in southern Egypt. Hamdi sustained a work injury that led to the amputation of his arm, causing him to remain disabled for the rest of his life. Hospitals refused to treat him because he did not have health insurance, and his employer got away with not covering the cost of his treatment under the pretext of not having a binding work contract.

“I support six children, since my husband’s death from cancer,” says Mahmoud’s mother. “We spent all of our savings on his treatment and I had to send my children to work at an early age, including Mahmoud and his elder brothers, also working in timber workshops in the area. Workshop owners prefer children because they accept lower pay.”

Hatem Qutub, Director of Terre des Hommes foundation, in Upper Egypt says 2.2 million children in Egypt work, according to ILO (International Labor Organization) estimates. Based on figures released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in 2013, the number of working children is 1.6 million, 83% of whom work in rural areas and 16% in cities. Forty-six per cent of these children are between 15 and 17 years of age, 87% of them male. Qutub indicates that these children may work more than nine hours a day, six days a week.

Loopholes

Regardless of which of the above estimates is more precise, the question remains how such a large number of children enter the labor market while the law prohibits it. The answer – legal loopholes. In a research paper on child labor, Dr. Sahar Abdul Sattar Imam, Professor of Civil and Commercial Procedures Law at the University of Menoufia explained that legislators do not prevent children from practicing simple and non-hazardous jobs. She adds that Article 80 of the Egyptian Constitution of 2014 states that a child is any person under 18 years of age. The Constitution has extended the age for basic education to the end of secondary level or its equivalent (Article 19). Clause 4 of the same article has banned child labor before completing primary education (12 years). It has also prohibited children’s engagement in work involving health risks.

Dr. Abdul Sattar indicates that incorporating this prohibition clause means that children are permitted to work at an early age under specific legal controls and only if the job has no adverse physical and mental health implications or inhibits their education.

Back Door

Child labor is therefore not forbidden at all in Egypt. The legislator has permitted children to take on simple jobs, including harvesting, where parents depend on their children’s income during such seasons. Abdul Sattar explains that child labor regulations began with Child Law No. 12 of 1996. A full chapter of Part 5 (Chapter I: Articles 64-69) was dedicated to provisions regulating child labor including age, nature of work, employer’s obligations, and wages. Article 64 of the said law prohibits child employment before the age of fourteen. It also prohibits their training before the age of twelve.

The last paragraph of the same article permits the employment of children of the age group 21-14 in risk-free seasonal work that does not harm their health, impair their growth, or prevent their school attendance. Their employment in such jobs is subject to a decision by the competent governor, after the approval of the Minister of Education. The law also provides for compliance with the executive regulations that explain the terms and conditions, under which children are allowed to work.

Leaving the door open for such exceptions like allowing child apprenticeship from the age of 12 is a loophole employers can use to employ children under the pretext of training. Allowing children between 12 and 14 years to engage in seasonal work is usually limited to agriculture, where laborers of all ages are not covered by the Labor Law. Consequently, employers are not obliged by any regulations with regard to child labor, where gross violations are a typical practice.

Another legal gap left is the status of apprentices. Labor Law No. 12 of 2003, amended by Law No. 180 of 2008 does devote its Part 5 to regulate apprentice work but it has fallen short of setting specific standards as to age, nature, and quality of work required to define this term clearly.

In accordance with Article 141, persons who join a certain work to learn a skill or a particular vocation are considered apprentices. Article 143 has entitled employers to terminate an apprenticeship if the trainee is found to be unfit to learn a given skill or trade. This situation has left the door wide open to employ or terminate children at the employers’ will, under the guise of apprenticeship. This situation is viewed as a legal gap which may be used to circumvent the provisions of the law and as a cover by the employer to rescind their obligations towards working children by taking advantage of their weakness and poverty.

Health Insurance Legal Gap

Mahmoud’s mother says the first hurdle she faced during his treatment was the lack of health insurance. Mahmoud had not attended school and has therefore not been issued a health insurance card, causing hospitals to refuse his treatment.

Dr. Sami Abdul Aziz, in charge of the General Authority for Health Insurance at Central and Northern Upper Egypt says that the annual health insurance premium is shared by the student and the Authority, 8 and 12 EGP respectively. The student, in that case, will be issued a health insurance card. This action is primarily meant to prevent student dropouts.

“We have faced a problem about injured children,” says Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, director of a community project named ‘Isma’ni’ (Listen to me), which provides protection for working children in the industrial areas in Asyut.  “The children may not be covered until they have an insurance card and we discovered a legal loophole in that the law links the issuance of the insurance card with primary education enrolment.”

Poverty, however, obliges children to work instead of going to school and so they fail to get the health insurance card. Abdel-Rahman’s project has tried therefore to coordinate between the employment office and the Health authority to establish a health center at Beni Ghalib industrial zone in Asyut.

“We have managed to enlist 1,472 child workers, and have assisted them to receive the needed treatment and get them covered by the apprenticeship/training law.”

Uninsured children

The legislator, says Lawyer Ahmed Saad, has exempted employers from paying insurance contributions for apprentice trainees to encourage them to enroll these children in their training programs. Saad adds that this has caused employers to claim that the working children are family members or sometimes deny their employment. This is why these children do not appear for regular medical examinations, stipulated in the effective regulations to protect them against occupational diseases. Many such children fall victim to diseases or injuries and are forced out of the labor market, given that 25% of work-related injuries occurs among children.

Mahmoud wishes he can return to play with his friends like other children, but his amputated arm has blocked this childish wish. The industrial zone employers have all denied him a job even for half the pay he used to get before his injury. “We are poor and we managed to cover his treatment charges only through benevolent help,” says Mahmoud’s mother.

She wonders what her son can do without any education certificate. “Even a rehabilitation certificate will only make him eligible to a financial assistance of EGP 150 (US $20) per month. He will not benefit from the 5% quota allocated to disabled persons who are assigned government jobs, because he did not attend school.”