Egypt's Minister of Finance Hany Qadry praised on Monday a new controversial civil services law saying that it achieves fairness, following protests by several thousands of public sector workers against its implementation. On Monday afternoon, Tax Authority and Ministry of Antiquities employees demonstrated outside the Journalists Syndicate in downtown Cairo to demand the annulment of the law that was passed in the absence of a parliament last March. The civil service law, which affects more than six million government employees, aims to reform Egypt's administrative apparatus in order to encourage investments by curbing bureaucratic inefficiencies, streamlining hiring practices and wage-structures in government institutions. Qadry said that the law achieves fairness by linking bonuses to productivity, according to a ministry statement. Many workers object to various tenets in the new law. For example workers say new assessment and evaluation process of work performance a threatens their job security. "The current law stipulates that if the employee received a weak assessment result in two years they would be fired, but the new law gives them opportunities to develop," read a cabinet statement on Monday night. Source: Ahram Online
