CAIRO: Dozens of tax and custom authorities’ employees have gathered outside the Journalists Syndicate Monday in protest of the new Civil Service Law, Al-Ahram reported.
The employees claimed that the “unfair” law was issued without prior study or consultation and that “it should has been put up for a community dialogue before being certified given that it is to be implemented on 75 percent of public sector employees.”
Several articles of the new law state a notable decrease on health insurance, incentives and pensions for public sector employees.
The protesters called on the government not to implement the new law on the Tax Authority and designating it as an independent body, as it is responsible for collecting the state’s revenues.
“The law gives any manager the right to fire any employee according to his own personal preferences; besides, the law has set an annual pay rise of only 50 EGP ($6.38,) which is a great injustice for all the tax workers,” a protesting tax officer said, according to Al-Ahram.
On July 20, the General Syndicate for Finance and Tax Workers sent a memo to the Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab demanding the government to stop applying the law on the administrative institution, according to the Daily New Egypt.
“The new law abandons most of custom and tax workers’ rights by depriving them from promotion, incentives, freedom of expressing their opinions on the working system,” said the syndicate director, Magdy Shaaban.
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi issued the amending version of the Civil Service law of 2003 in March. The law has set a new system for salaries, incentives and compensations.