Egypt's new law governing civil service came into effect on Monday amid minor protests from government employees.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail signed a decree on Sunday containing the executive regulations required to enforce the country's new civil service law, state-run news agency MENA reported.
The law, which was ratified in March by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in the absence of a parliament and ahead of Egypt's International Economic Conference, aims to reform Egypt’s administrative apparatus in order to lessen the wage burden on state finances and encourage private investment.
Egypt, whose cash-strapped government is looking to attract billions in private investments over the coming years, ranked 131st out of 189 countries in "ease of doing business” in the World Bank Group's 2016 Doing Business report.
Provisions of the law include reforming basic salaries to constitute 80 percent of overall wages, which were traditionally much more fragmented, while basing bonuses on performance instead of seniority, and cuts annual bonuses to 5 per cent from 10 per cent last year.
Wages and bonuses grew in past years to comprise 25.2 per cent of the budget in the 2015/2016 fiscal year, compared to 23.9 per cent in FY2010/11, according to official figures
The enactment of the law — which governs about 7 million civil servants in Egypt’s sprawling and inefficient state bureaucracy — has been met with resistance by public employees.
Dozens of Tax Authority workers protested against the law in front of the Journalists Syndicate building in downtown Cairo, the Egyptian Youm7 website reported on Monday.
Tax Authority workers have in past months staged several protests against the law, including a huge protest in August, demanding to be given special status and exempted from the law.
Employees have reiterated concerns that the new wage structure and bonus ceilings might not keep up with inflation in the future.
"Ten years from now, my basic salary would remain the same despite inflation and increases in prices," Tarek El-Kashef, a Tax Authority officer protesting against the new law, told Ahram Online in August.
State-owned companies and independent economic entities are not covered by the provisions of the law.
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