CAIRO: No changes will be made to the status of the 5.6 million permanent civil servants as a result of the new civil employment law, Dr Ahmed Darwish, minister of state for administrative development, said during a press conference Monday. Darwish had earlier announced a new draft law on civil employment to be presented for approval before the parliament. The draft law has been criticized by opposition and independent press as well as trade unions for including a clause on mandatory probation periods up to six months for all new civil servant employees. The current employment law was issued in 1978. Since then, many changes have occurred on both the domestic and the global socio-economic levels, Darwish explained. That is why there should be a new law conforming to such changes. The major beneficiaries of the new law are primarily the 400,000 employees working now on a temporary basis - whose contracts are renewed annually on June 30 - and future civil servants. Temporary workers are not effectively made use of and they don t occupy effective positions due to their indefinite status, Darwish argued. Meanwhile, employees who enter into the new employment contracts with governmental institutions will be granted all the rights of permanent employees including social insurance, medical insurance, maternity leave and any other benefits. On the other hand, contracts based on the new law are to be renewed every 3-5 years based on the institution s requirements and the employee s performance. And at some point these contracts may eventually become permanent. The new employment law also legalizes contractual procedures to guarantee transparency and equal opportunity for all. The law s executive regulations dictate that an institution must announce its job vacancies on the Internet as well as publishing the names and qualifications of those who will be hired, Darwish said. This, in turn, will put an end to nepotism. The draft law articles will be available online soon for the public to read and send their feedback. Unemployment and job creation are among the most important challenges facing policymakers in Egypt today. The growth performance of the economy has failed to create sufficient jobs to match the rapid increase in the labor force of 2.7 percent per year. According to the Human Development Report 2006 published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Egypt is ranked 111th in terms of high unemployment rate. Based on World Bank statistics, Egypt s official unemployment rate peaked near 12 percent in September 2005, before falling slightly in December of the same year. A total of 600,000 new entrants need to be absorbed into the labor market annually and it is thought that present rates of investment, 18 percent of gross domestic products (GDP), are insufficient to generate the GDP growth rates of 6-7 percent to address unemployment in a sustainable manner.
