Parliament’s Labour Committee commenced a discussion on Monday about the Civil Service Law put forth by the government.
The government had amended the first draft of the law, which was rejected by parliament in February, and presented it to parliament again for approval.
Maissa Attwa, a member of the committee, told Daily News Egypt that during the meeting on Monday the committee decided to force the government to raise the financial incentive rate to 7%, solving the issue of the lack of sufficient funds for employees to collect their pay checks, stressing that workers should not be reliant on these funds to receive their pay.
Furthermore, Attwa stated that the committee has reached the final stages of discussing the law and that it will meet with government officials on Tuesday to solve any remaining problems.
Abdelfattah Mohamed, another member of the committee, told Daily News Egypt on Monday that there are no conflicts within the parliament regarding the law.
He continued that parliament initially rejected the law due to disagreements surrounding six articles but that those articles have been amended by the government after multiple meetings with parliament.
The purpose of the law, according to Mohamed, is to prevent corruption and administrative stagnation and to protect public workers.
Mohamed said he was hopeful that the committee will finish its discussion of the law and present it to parliament in the near future.
The first draft of the Civil Service Law was the only decree rejected by parliament during its review of over 300 decrees issued by former interim president Adly Mansour and President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Al-Sisi was severely critical of parliament’s rejection of the decree, stating that the law’s main aim was to reform the public sector.
The Civil Service Law presented a new system for salaries and stipulates that incentives should be approved by the prime minister as a fixed percentage of the total salary every year, according to different positions.
The law also stipulated that fixed salaries contribute 80% of the employee’s income, while bonuses are awarded according to the employee’s performance, rather than seniority. Prior to the law, 80% of public employees’ wages were constituted by bonuses while 20% constituted a fixed salary.
