A draft resolution amending civil service and retirement laws has raised the ire of Palestinian public sector employees over the added financial burden it would force them to endure. Bassam Zakarneh, president of the Public Sector Employees Union, told local Radio 4 on Aug. 12 that the Palestinian Authority (PA) Cabinet had submitted a proposal to President Mahmoud Abbas on Aug. 4 to amend current laws to release 70,000 employees as part of an early retirement scheme. The changes stipulate mandatory early retirement for those employees who have served 15 years or more and are over 50 years of age. Employees of the Ministries of Education and Health would be exempt under the amendment. The measure apparently falls within the framework of planned austerity policies.
Zakarneh said the plan was designed to decrease current expenditures by reducing the number of PA employees in Gaza and the West Bank from 150,000 to 80,000 and had been prepared in cooperation with the World Bank. It also includes the elimination of some ministries as well as forced retirements without the appointment of replacement employees for three years. Retired employees would be paid between 50% and 56% of their monthly wage. New appointment mechanisms were to be examined, especially for the Ministries of Health and Education.
The plan follows on the European Union’s April 30 announcement that it would no longer provide financial assistant to pay government employee salaries in Gaza if they continued to fail to report to work, which has been a problem since 2007. After Hamas took control of Gaza that year, the PA called on employees it had hired there in government and security institutions to stop working.
Mohamed Khaled, an employee of the National Economy Ministry, told Al-Monitor, “The idea of early retirement, which comes to the forefront from time to time, is prejudiced against employees who have complied with decisions taken by the central authorities.” He added that the austerity policy contained many other items, so it should not be implemented at the expense of employees.
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