CAIRO: Prime Minister Essam Sharaf met with executives and experts to work on resolving the disparity in salaries and incomes in the government. The meeting comes in light of protests staged by workers all over the country against the disparity in salaries, demanding pay raises and more benefits. Attending the meeting were Sharaf's deputy as well as Governor of the Central Bank, Farouk El-Okda, as well as the Ministers of Planning and International Cooperation, Trade and Industry, Petroleum, Manpower and Immigration and the Minister of Finance. The attendees approved the recommendations made by the deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and the Minster of Finance, Hazem El-Biblawy, for “taking urgent steps in resolving the disparity in incomes,” which included a plan that will be executed starting January 2012. The Central Agency for Organization and Management will be responsible starting now and until January for laying the necessary rules and guidelines for the plan, which will be based on two main principles. The plan will be based on transparency and openness regarding the incomes and salaries all employees in the government receive. The second principle is finding a correlation between the minimum and maximum salaries given by the government. Furthermore, the attendees also approved forming a special committee to study the current status of salaries in the country and will be responsible for laying a structure to eliminate any forms of disparities and also take into account pensions and insurance. This committee will have to complete this task within six months and its recommendations will go into effect immediately. All these plans are an effort to achieve “social justice, equality, transparency and openness,” according to the Cabinet's press statement. The meeting also decided that the National Council for Wages will be responsible for determining the minimum wage for workers in the private sector. Workers strikes have been on the rise as the Post Authority workers in nine governorates are continuing their strike demanding their 7 percent annual incentive and the promised 200 percent monthly reward incentive and the cleansing of the authority from corrupt leaderships. The Ismailia Post employees have been on strike since Aug. 25 demanding a profit share from projects affiliated with the authority, better working conditions and better healthcare. In Mahalla, workers at the textile factory announced that they will begin a strike on Sept. 10 demanding more investments into the company, a minimum wage of LE 1,200 or a 200 percent monthly incentive and holding internal elections on the scheduled date.
