After meeting with the People's Assembly speaker experts at the Ministry of Justice have agreed to halt their strike, temporarily at least, reports Mona El-Nahhas After nearly 60 days on strike experts at the Justice Ministry have declared a month long truce. Following promises by the People's Assembly speaker Fathi Sorour to address their demands experts began collecting their belongings last Thursday morning from the ministry's headquarters, where they had been staging a sit-in. They have now resumed work on the backlog of cases that accumulated during their work-to-rule. Problems between technical experts and the Ministry of Justice began in June after two decrees were issued regulating their work practices. The first decree gave the minister of justice a freehand in selecting experts for particular cases, while the second prohibited documents relating to cases from being examined in the experts' own offices. Instead, they are now obliged to travel to the courts to examine relevant files. Experts complain that the second decree not only places a financial burden on them but will result in a great deal of time being lost commuting between courts. The ministry has insisted that the restrictions are necessary following several cases in which important documents have been lost. After petitioning ministry officials to address their concerns and failing to gain a response, experts decided to stage a sit-in and partial work stoppage. Negotiations with the ministry, says expert Mohamed Tahoon, resulted in nothing but empty promises. "For nearly two months we waited for a new ministerial decree abolishing the earlier ones and nothing was done. We had no other alternative but to continue our strike," he says. The experts were supported by a delegation that included 20 independent and opposition MPs who insisted that their demands were fair. The Bar Association also issued a statement urging that the contentious decrees be annulled and arguing that they were illegal. Finally Sorour stepped into the fray, a sign, say the experts, that their demands are at last being taken seriously. During his meeting with the strikers last week Sorour said he understood their position and vowed to help resolve the stand-off, asking them to first suspend the sit-in. Sorour promised that a draft law regulating experts' working practices would be discussed during the coming parliamentary session, due to start in November. He also told experts that should their demands not be addressed during the next parliamentary session they would be more than welcome to stage a sit-in in the People's Assembly. The delegation that met Sorour felt it had no choice but to declare a temporary suspension of the strike even before consulting with protesting colleagues. News of suspension was broadcast immediately by Egyptian TV. Mohamed Daher, head of the Experts' Club and a member of the delegation that met with Sorour, briefed colleagues on the meeting. "Although we have reservations we decided to approve the initiative in order to maintain solidarity," Tahoon told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We are not trouble-makers. We only began the sit-in after all other doors were closed in our face." Experts say that should Sorour's promises not result in concrete ministerial decrees they will resume their sit-in. "We are fed up of promises. Now we need action," says Tahoon. On Sunday morning the People's Assembly's Legislative Committee met to discuss the experts' demands. Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei did not attend Sunday's meeting. His absence may suggest that Sorour's promises to resolve the crisis may prove easier said than done.
