Egypt workers protest against the new law seeking to reform the country's mammoth civil service, calling it unfair and unconstitutional, in Cairo's Fustat Park, Egypt, Saturday, 12 September 2015 (Photo: Rawan Ezzat)
Hundreds of government employees gathered in Cairo's Fustat Park to protest the new civil service law on Saturday, although the tax authority employees who have thus far been the main campaigners against the planned legislation were absent.
The protests were called for by Solidarity, a coalition of 30 labour syndicates and six worker associations who had previously dubbed plans to implement the law "unconstitutional."
The government passed the law with the aim of curbing notorious bureaucratic inefficiencies by reforming Egypt’s administrative apparatus and streamlining hiring practices and wage-structures in governmental institutions and public sector workers.
According to the new law, basic salaries would constitute 80 percent of overall pay in all government institutions, while bonuses, traditionally dependent on seniority, would be calculated based on performance. Protesting workers argue that these rules could result in paycuts and other adverse consequences.
Fustat Park in south Cairo is the only venue in the capital where protests are allowed without prior police permission, according to a 2013 law regulating public demonstrations.
The Solidarity coalition accused the authorities of deliberately preventing some protestors from reaching the protest venue.
"We have filed an official complaint with the prosecutor-general against the Ministry of Interior for failing to comply with the protest law that gives the right to any citizen to freely protest in Fustat Park without prior notice," Hussein Ibrahim, spokesperson of the Solidarity coalition, told Ahram Online.
The protest came hours after the resignation of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and his cabinet for unspecified reasons, although it had been planned before the resignations were announced.
"The resignation of Mahlab's government gives employees a strong push to uphold their demands of halting the implementation of the new civil service law," said Shaimaa Ahmed, head of the independent teachers union.
"The reshuffling of the cabinet is a clear victory for our cause; we expect the new government to be more responsive to our demands," Khaled El-Senoussy, a union member and tax authority employee, told Ahram Online.
A counter-protest denouncing "the disruption of state institutions" was held at the same time in front of the park's southern entrance.
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