Under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the activities of the 49th Session of the Arab Labour Conference (ALC), organized by the Arab Labour Organization (ALO) of the League of Arab States, were launched in Egypt on Monday 22-5-2023, and is scheduled to run till May 29, in Cairo.

The conference is presided by Mauritania, the current president, attended by numerous Ministers of Labour, heads and members of delegations from employers’ associations and trade unions from 21 Arab countries, representatives of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, Arab and international organizations and a number of ambassadors and public figures in the course to present a Discuss a range of dossiers related to labour and employee issues.

The conference will address a four-item report of the ALO's Director-General, Fayez Al-Mutairi, entitled “Social Dialogue between Current Challenges and Future Prospects” listed on the conference agenda to discuss means of beefing up societal dialogue at the national and regional levels as the best strategy for reinforcing the economic potentials of the Arab states in facing of current challenges.

The conference agenda also includes discussing a number of items on the ALO’s activities and achievements, namely: reports on the organization’s activities and an item on the implementation of Arab labour agreements and recommendations, a report on the memorandum of the Director-General of the Arab Labour Office on the subject of the 111th session of the International Labour Conference in Geneva, June 5-16, together with a report on the results of the work of the (42nd) session of the Committee on Freedoms of Association (March 4, 2023), a report on the results of the work of the (21st) meeting of the Arab Women’s Labour Affairs Committee (February 19, 2023) and a report on the draft Arab strategy on education and technical and vocational education. (changed).

The conference will also deal with the decisions and recommendations of the Board of Directors, presenting an overview of the decisions and recommendations of the Board of Directors and a report on the results of the work of the two meetings of the Board of Directors of the Arabs Organization of work between session (48) and session (49) the Arab Labour Conference and meeting (97) of the Governing Body (Baghdad, 16-17 October 2022) and the (98th) meeting of the Governing Body (Cairo, 5-6 March 2023).

The conference will further have an initial discussion on issuing a normative instrument on “new patterns of work” and amending the 1977 Convention No. (9) on Vocational Guidance and Training.

Activities

22-5-2023

The opening session

The opening session began with the presentation of a documentary film about the organization’s activities, then the Director-General of the Arab Labour Organization, Mr. Fayez Al-Mutairi, and Muhammad Abdullah Al-Salem Ahmadwa, the Secretary-General of the Public Service in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the President of the Conference, and Ahmed Al-Asadi, the Iraqi Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Chairman The Board of Directors, and Minister Plenipotentiary Mohamed Khair, representative of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, delivered speeches in which they emphasized the importance of joint Arab action in order to face the challenges facing the world of work.

Minister of Manpower Hassan Shehata presided over a three-way delegation of Egypt comprising the ministry of manpower, business organizations and the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF).

On behalf of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Minister of Manpower Hassan Shehata delivered Egypt’s speech to the conference on behalf of President Sisi to assert Egypt’s support to all policies and ideas backing the enhancement of joint Arab action.