The Ismail government once again faces the spectre of mass demonstrations against the Civil Service Act has as a number of bureaucrat unions and labor organizations threatened to picket parliament if the House of Representatives passes the legislation in its current form. This comes despite the House Manpower Committee scoring a victory for the nation’s bureaucrats in getting annual raise rates increased to 7% from 5%. Fatma Fouad, head of an independent union for tax authority workers, tells Al Shorouk that this change is not enough. She added that the union plans to meet with the deputy chairman of the Manpower Committee to relay their grievances with the legislation. The union also plans to meet with the Planning and Budget Committee to push for exempting Tax Authority workers from the Act. Mass protests and sit-ins by bureaucrats last summer made the legislation a pariah in the eyes of MPs who shot down the act when it was first introduced in January.