A number of civil service employee associations have come out against the passing of the Civil Service Act, despite the law having been diluted significantly over the past year to appease them. The public school teachers union is railing against the entry level salary, set at EGP 875 per month, and are calling for a minimum of EGP 1,200, citing on a court ruling back in 2009, Al Mal reports. Other organizations are critical of the wage gap between managers and regular employees. Key features of the act, a copy of which was published in Youm7, include:

• Three and a half years to fire poor performing employees (Article 27): An employee must receive a poor performance evaluation for two consecutive years, then be moved to a separate unit. If his or her performance doesn’t improve within a year, then a six-month period of half pay is instituted. Only then can termination proceedings begin.
• Raises and bonuses (Articles 37 & 38): All state employees will receive an annual raise of no less than 7%. A 5% incentive bonus once every three years will be granted to-better performing employees. Employees who complete an academic degree during their tenure are entitled to a one-off bonus. The old executive regulations of the act established a separate raise based on academic qualifications; these must be amended to as a result of the new act
• Promotions (Articles 29-32): Promotions will be won on the basis of both seniority and qualifications. All employees are eligible for promotion on the basis of seniority contingent on their evaluation and the time spent in grade, while promotions based on qualifications will depend on both a strong evaluation and on successfully completing training for the more senior position. A promotion carries with it a 2.5% pay increase.
• Retirement (Article 69): All state employees are eligible for early retirement at 50 and social security benefits will depend on years on the job.

What changed from the last edition of the act? The annual raise was set at 5% before it was first rejected by the House, while the incentive bonus was increased from 2%. Other changes include amending the clauses on punitive salary deductions that will be set by infraction and which now give the bureaucrat the right to appeal any such measure. The changes also set a maximum 42 hours of work per week and a minimum civil service wage, in addition to financially compensating workers for lost vacation time. As we noted back in May, the amendments also establish a single salary rate, compared to the two under the old system, making it triple the current base salary.

Conclusions: While motivated bureaucrats can hope to see their lots improved (only slightly) with hard work, the act largely fails to punish the inefficient worker, who can coast by on mediocrity until retirement. The new act, in effect, has largely failed in its purpose to make the civil service more efficient.