It is no better today than it was yesterday. There have been no changes either in wages or labour conditions. Vehicles come every morning to collect the workers and their tools, plus the small food parcels prepared by their wives or mothers, and whisk them off to work. They seldom know where they are bound.
In this report Watani looks at the lives of members of a major group of casual workers: those eking a living from the construction sector.
One such labourer is Saber Mahmoud from the town of Mallawi in Minya. “We are a group of six, mostly from one village, living in one room,” Mr Mahmoud says. “Our day begins at five o’clock in the morning. We have to start early to be sure of getting a job, which is generally either digging foundations for a new building, breaking up the concrete of old buildings or any other construction work.
“The problem is that a contractor who needs 10 workers will find 30 on the market, and he will naturally select younger and stronger workers—and those who will accept lower wages.”
Barely sufficient
Mahmoud Abu-Deif, from Sohag, Upper Egypt, has been a construction worker for 20 years, and his young sons have followed suit. The family’s irregular income is barely enough for their basic needs and they live from hand to mouth. If a family member should fall ill, Mr Abu-Deif could not find the medical fees. To make matters worse, now that he is older contractors avoid hiring him. He has no pension to look forward to.
Some construction workers began with higher aspirations. Ten years ago Muhammad Omran gained a diploma in commerce, but because he could not find a job in his village he went to Cairo to join a cousin. He knew his cousin worked with a contractor who employed casual labourers, and accepted work with them at a daily rate of LE20. Now he sees his family only every three months when he goes to the village to take home the money he has earned. “We live an inhuman life,” Mr Omran says. “Men who come from the same village live together, either in a common room, or on the worksite. In the case of anyone contracting an illness, he will be compelled to put the money he has collected for months into one week’s medical expenses.”
Engineer Youssef George, the owner of a contracting company, told Watani that in the past most casual labourers were illiterate, but many were now either educated or were students. “One of my workers is a teacher in a village, and he comes to work during the summer vacation,” he said. “The problem is that these people live on the margin of the economy and do not have a stable income, and since they do not have any legal position, they don’t have insurance or access to medical services.”
Younger men
A study of casual workers by the National Planning Institute revealed that such work still attracted a huge number of young men aged between 18 and 20 years, who made up about 31 per cent in the casual market. Men aged between 20 and 60 made up 56.1 per cent, while those over 60 constituted 13.1 per cent. The study also revealed that 91 per cent were illiterate despite the high percentage of youths, which meant that the educational system was failing to attain the minimum of its required targets—to eradicate illiteracy. In the main part casual workers are vendors, workers in the building industry and the domestic sector, and child workers. The study pointed out that the number of casual workers had reached five million and that in addition to low wages they had to put up with no holidays, as well as health and safety issues in the workplace.
Undernourished
Women form a special sector of casual workers. The report discussed the conditions of women working in the agricultural sector, who are forced to work in the fields belonging to others and under poor working conditions including low wages and no insurance or medical care and protection.
A casual worker from Minya, Walid Shaaban, who holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Beni Sweif University, feels bitter about the workers’ living conditions. They generally choose the cheapest option, which entails living in small rooms much like prison cells and with four or five other men—and sometimes as many as 15—sleeping on cardboard boxes on a muddy floor. Waste pipes are often blocked.
The recent human development report issued by the United Nations indicated that 20 per cent of the poorest people in Egypt received no more than 8.6 per cent of the national income.
The report also showed that 54 per cent of children, especially in rural communities, were undernourished and anaemic.
Another recent report revealed that 12 million Egyptians were living without formal shelter—in graves, parking areas, mosques and under stairs. One and a half of these are in Cairo.