CAIRO - Egypt's Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri took it upon himself to create the social justice that was missing in Egypt, during the past 30 years. Some days after assuming office, Ganzouri announced he would draw up maximum and minimum wages and that the new salaries would be handed out in January. However nothing has changed, there is still a huge gap between maximum and minimum wages and Ganzouri's promise has not been fulfilled. What about the principle of social justice, which the revolutionaries fought for? Does the Government even have a strategy? Magdi Sayyed, a civil servant at the Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out that many employees had still the same contracts as 10 or 15 years ago and that their salaries ranged from LE150 ($25) to LE200 ($33). He added they needed to have two jobs to earn just about enough to survive. At the same time, Government employees in the Ministries of Finance or Petroleum were paid thousands of Egyptian pounds every month and that the previous regime was still going strong. He wondered when this situation would improve, since the revolution had not yet managed to change it. Mohamed Hamed el-Gamal, former Head of the State Council, called on all officials to respect the principle of social justice, because that would solve the problem of strikes and sit-ins. The salary gap was huge and contradicted the principle of human rights, the constitution and Islamic law, which all called for equality. He regretted that there was no law in Egypt to define maximum wages, though most countries of the world had such a law. In France for example there was a committee that determined salaries on the basis of academic certificates, qualifications and expertise. This committee reviewed maximum and minimum wages in regular intervals in view of social justice. Anwar Darwish, a professor at Cairo University, said that the administrative body needed to hurry and meet the revolution' demands and that the huge difference between the salaries of civil servants needed to be overcome. “It doesn't not make sense that the salary of one governmental employee was LE200 ($33), while another one got LE200,000 ($33,333). This was 100 times more, while in other countries the difference was only 20 times. “There must be a ban that stops civil servants from having more than one governmental job. The number of consultants had to be reduced, since they depleted the State funds. Billions of Egyptian pounds could be saved and the minimum wage increases, while more funds could also be channelled into development projects,” Darwish added. El-Gamal warned about the continuation of the current conditions. Although a year had passed since the January 25 revolution, the same system is still in place. “It favoured the rich, who were the beneficiaries of pay rises and received salaries of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian pounds per month, particularly in the sectors of petroleum, tourism, finance and foreign trade. On the other hand, most employees' salaries didn't exceed LE 500. “The rosy promises of several Prime ministers, from Ahmed Shafik and Essam Sharaf to Kamal el-Ganzouri, had so far led nowhere,” el-Gamal said.
