Version imprimableProgramme of social rights affirmed by the Egyptian people
1. Each citizen able to work is entitled to a job.
2. Any private citizen deprived of employment is entitled to unemployment benefit allowing him or her to live with dignity until he or she finds employment.
3. The monthly minimum wage and pensions must not be lower than 1200 Egyptian pounds (EP), in accordance with the judgement of the Administrative Court, based on national studies. Wages and pensions are indexed on prices. Immediate payment of unpaid annual increases in pensions.
4. In their turn, maximum wages must not exceed 24.000 EP per month, (in other words, 20 times the minimum wage).
5. The total variable bonuses must not exceed 20 per cent of the fixed wages guaranteed by law.
6. Placing under the control of the Court of Auditors of the payment of individualized wage bonuses into “special accounts”, according to the same criteria quoted above.
7. The right to housing: the government must guarantee each citizen housing, with a rent proportional to wages, according to social criteria. Housing must be financed by the state and by co-operatives and not by profit-making companies.
8. The right to public services at cost price (drinking water, sewage, electricity), without the intervention of profit-making companies, private or public.
9. The right for all citizens to quality and effective care, guaranteed by the following measures: immediate doubling of the health budget (from less than 5 per cent to 10 per cent of public expenditure); immediate extension to all citizens of universal health insurance; a halt to privatizations and regrouping of all public health organizations under the same public agency; sharing of financing of health insurance between the contributions of citizens (1/4) and the contributions of employers (3/4). In the event of need, contributions can be increased by a democratic procedure. On the other hand, the principle of any tax, proportional or fixed, that limits the access of citizens to care is excluded. The state pays the contributions of those Egyptians whose incomes are lower than the extreme poverty line. These policy-holders are thus exonerated from contributions while enjoying the same rights to universal care for all illnesses.
10. The right of every Egyptian to quality and effective education, guaranteed by the following measures: immediate doubling of the education budget (from less than 10 per cent to 20 per cent of public expenditure); an increase in school-building; absolutely free education at all levels, including stopping the conversion of all public schools and colleges from free education to paying of fees. Recognition in the school programmes of resistance and patriotism, of the heroic acts of the national struggle, rejection of the culture of so-called "peace" with the enemies of the nation.
All political, trade-union and associative forces are called on to adopt these legitimate demands of the Egyptian people, to defend them and work for their implementation.
Cairo, February 22, 2011
* This programme was signed by the Pensioners’ Union, the Teachers’ Union, the Egyptian Centre for Social and Economic Rights and the Hicham Mubarak Centre for Human Rights.
