The Egyptian government is considering a proposal to reduce the number of working days for public sector employees. A committee was formed to study the proposal, and will be chaired by the head of the Central Agency for Organization and Administration (CAOA), Saleh El Sheikh, and board members representing the Ministry of Planning, Follow-up and Administrative Reform, the Administrative Control Authority and a representative from the parliament’s Legislative Affairs Secretariat.

In an Aug. 15 statement to Al-Youm Al-Sabeh newspaper, Sheikh stressed that the “committee will consider the proposals of all government stakeholders with regard to the decision,” noting that “the committee has addressed all ministers to gauge their opinion on the matter. It also touched on the decision details with the Holding Company for Water and Waste Water and the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company to determine the costs and expenses of running the administrative departments throughout the fiscal year, and to identify the months, days and hours of work in order to assess the situation in case of reduced working hours.”

The proposal sparked controversy among the public sector employees, who were divided into two camps. The first camp welcomed the potential three days off per week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) instead of two (Friday and Saturday), while the other rejected it for fear of employees being laid off eventually.

Although CAOA is chairing the committee, which is currently looking into the proposal, Sheikh said in a press statement Aug. 5, "CAOA's research department has already carried out a survey internally on flexible working hours and reduced working days. Fifty percent of those surveyed were against this proposal. In addition, initial indicators showed that 67% of surveyed workers in the CAOA directorates across the governorates rejected the proposal.”