2019-09-25

West Bank

Human Rights Defenders / West Bank

His Excellency the Minister of Finance,

Mr. Shukri Bheshara,

Subject: Affecting the Right to Work in the Public Sector

MUSAWA- The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession extends its warmest greetings to your Excellency, noting that on 8/3/2019, the center received a written complaint from Tareq Ibrahim Hijjo, from Gaza and currently resides in Bitunia, in which he states that he worked as a full-timer at the National Security Forces since 1/8/1986 until 19/4/2004, as he was reassigned at the civilian staff of the Ministry of the Economy.

Considering the decision to accredit 18 years of full time service at the National Security Forces for salaries and promotions’ considerations as of 1/7/2005, the same year the complainant was seconded to Al-Zahraa Municipality in Gaza to preside over the municipal council from 1/3/2005 to 1/3/2009, when he was demoted by Hamas and returned back to his old post in the ministry as a C-level executive without considering the service years he spent 22 at other public posts, while according to article 65 of the Civil Service Act in force, he was supposed to be considered a C-level executive + 22 years of service, as the article provides for “The department from which the employee was seconded shall be obliged to return him to his first job or an equivalent job in terms of the degree and salary deserved after the secondment. In all cases, the seconded employee shall retain all the privileges of the job he held before the secondment”. However, the complainant’s request to enforce this article, his request was denied on the pretext that the Ministers’ Council’s Decision No (20) of 2008 settled for considering the deserved privileges in terms of salary only, in contraction with the Civil Service Act that provides for considering the secondment years in terms of both salaries and promotions. 

The complainant pointed out that several colleagues, whose career statuses are similar to his, have faced similar cases, nevertheless, the Civil Security Act was enforced in their cases, and their privileges included both promotion and salary, unlike his. In addition, the complainant added that his salary is adequate to meet the requirements of his life, given that he is one year away from retirement, which will significantly reduce his salary in case the privileges deserved did not include both promotion and salary. 

MUSAWA believes that this complaint entails a prejudice to the complainant’s employment rights, and that implementing the Ministers Council’s decision No. 20 of 2008 in the mentioned case constitutes an encroachment on the principle of direct effect of the law, particularly since the complainant is subjected to the provisions of the Civil Service Act rather than the mentioned decision rendered by the Ministers Council, which affects the principle of public service equality. Therefore, MUSAWA demands your Excellency to consider our memo, to reverse your decision on the non-applicability of privileges in terms of both salary and promotion; enabling the complainant from enjoying his right to enjoying his salary and promotion privileges as was the case for his colleagues and in realization of the law provisions, to take those privileges in consideration when calculating his pension and to keep us updated with the actions taken by your side in this concern duly.

With All Due Respect,

Issued on 17/9/2019

The Legal Monitoring Officer

Adv. Angham Mansour