The Egyptian government is considering a proposal to reduce the workweek from five to three days, with an increase of working hours per day for a number of civil servants.
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2018) The Egyptian government is considering a proposal to reduce the workweek from five to three days, with an increase of working hours per day for a number of civil servants.
This proposal was made by Central Authority for Organization and Administration and has already received a wide public response.
The proposal suggests dividing officials of departments that currently work one five-day shift per week into two groups, each of which would work more hours but for only three days.
Therefore, agency staff, while separately working less days per week, would together cover six days of the workweek, and not five, as is currently the case. The authorities will also save on electricity, water, and reduce the burden on public transportation and roads.
According to the head of Central Authority for Organization and Administration, Saleh El Sheikh, the commission reviewing the reduced workweek proposal, had already requested data on water and electricity used by ministries and departments to calculate the possible savings at the national level. The opinions of psychologists, sociologists, economists, and financial and law specialists were also requested.
"This study should take into account the social changes that take place, changes in psychology, as well as economic benefits," El Sheikh said. According to him, the results of the study will be submitted to the government within three weeks.
According to Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, the reduced workweek issue is being reviewed within the framework of the government's efforts to improve the efficiency of the state apparatus.
"The introduction of this idea will save energy and reduce pressure on roads. In addition, we are talking about the introduction of a shift system instead of the current system, where everyone works on the same schedule," the prime minister said in an interview with Al Watan newspaper.
Madbouly added that the shift system would increase the time during which public services can be provided.
"This is all being studied, no decisions have been made yet," the Egyptian prime minister noted.
At the same time, member of the Egyptian parliament and deputy head of the regional development committee Ibrahim Abdel Aziz told Sputnik that the draft law on the reduction of the workweek had not yet been submitted to the parliament.
"We are expecting a new parliamentary session, which will begin on October 1," he said.
At the same time, the lawmaker noted that such decisions concerning administrative regulation could be made by the government independently, without appealing to the parliament for approval.
He went on to say that the reduction of the workweek did not meet the interests of the state.
"The state, which is striving to develop, should not think about reducing the workweek. We seek to increase the number of employees, create new jobs for young people," he said.
According to him, these tasks that the state sets require the efforts of all Egyptians and require working in full capacity rather than shortening the workweek.
According to Egyptian media reports, the number of civil servants in the country has reached 5.7 million people. Previously, it was speculated that Egypt could start reducing the number of officials within the framework of ongoing economic reforms, but the government denied these reports.
For almost two years, Egypt has been implementing a package of economic reforms approved by the International Monetary Fund. Since early November 2016, Egyptian Central Bank has been floated the national Currency, the Egyptian pound, for the first time in many years. This move twice reduced its value.
The International Monetary Fund approved financial assistance for Egypt in the amount of $12 billion that would be used for economic and financial reforms with the aim of making the Egyptian economy more stable, competitive and help create new jobs. As part of economic reforms, the Egyptian government introduced new taxes for companies, raised fuel prices and prices of municipal services.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Egyptian economic performance is quite decent; a 5.2 percent increase in GDP is projected for 2018. In addition, the unemployment rate declined from 12 percent in the first quarter of 2017 to 10.6 percent in the same period this year, and inflation rates were also falling.
