june 30, 2025
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms issues this paper to comment on the new Labor Law No. 14 of 2025. The paper is titled: “The New Labor Law… A Continuation of the Betrayal of Workers’ Rights and an Increase in Obligations.”
This paper comes within the context of a critical review of the new labor law, based on constitutional principles and international labor regulations, as well as observations of the labor reality in Egypt. It aims to highlight the key elements of this law.
The paper raises the question: “Why do we need a labor law?” This law was introduced after years of demands for updating the legislative framework of labor, to keep pace with economic and social changes, and to address the shortcomings revealed by the implementation of the previous labor law No. 12 of 2003. Every law has a philosophy behind it — in other words, a social necessity that mandates its existence. Undoubtedly, all legal systems around the world, and all legal scholarship, have established that labor law is one of the most important pieces of social legislation, alongside laws on insurance, pensions, health insurance, and others.
As a form of social legislation, labor law intervenes to regulate labor relations in a way that guarantees a minimum level of rights for the weaker party in the production process — the worker, who possesses nothing but his labor power (“his arm”) — in contrast to employers who possess capital and administrative authority and whose interests are protected by a host of investment and other laws.
The paper examines the new law in terms of its scope of application (regarding individuals), court fees, child labor, parental leave, regulation of working hours and rest periods, disciplinary sanctions, the right to strike as recognized by the law, penalties for harassment and bullying, the wage system, and finally the process for terminating employment contracts.