Minister of Planning Ashraf El-Araby announced Sunday that the disputed civil service law was re-submitted to the House of Representatives for approval after amendments were by the ministries of finance and planning.
El-Araby said in a TV interview that amendments to penalties and complaints articles in the 18/2015 law were demanded by the parliament’s committee on labour power, which discussed the law before it was turned down in a vote turned it down.
“I didn’t expect that the law would be during the general session,” said El-Araby, though he did expect reservations nonetheless.
Despite official calls by the government and the majority of parliament to approve the law before it was voted upon, the parliament rejected the decree on 20 January with a majority of 332 votes.
A note sent by the parliament speaker to the presidency following the rejection included 20 reasons about the technicalities of penalties, compensations, and allowances to the constitutionality of the law.
The note detailed the unconstitutionality of the law; its first article states exceptions for certain governmental authorities from implementing the law, state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported at the time.
The minister of planning said after the amendments, the law will not be implemented on the aforementioned authorities and bodies which include the presidency, judiciary, military, and others.
The anti-civil service law coalition Tadamon launched Sunday a campaign to oust ministers of planning El-Araby and of Finance Hany Qadry.
Tadamon, which consists of 20 labour and professional syndicates and unions, called for the dismissal and prosecution of the ministers responsible for issuing the law which they said endangers the rights of public sector employees.
