Cabinet makes drastic changes to civil service by-law

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the amending civil service by-law for 2017, which aims at improving service and performance at government institutions, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The 30 amendments introduced to the by-law include new concepts to human resources management aimed to enhance the values of work, productivity and employees' empowerment, the Cabinet said in a statement carried by Petra. 

They include encouraging students, who did not finish high school to enrol in vocational and technological education by upgrading their appointment category from 3rd to 2nd, once they are employed, which means better benefits.

The new regulations also entail rectifying the status of employees that complete their degrees during their career, as well as dismissing employees with a poor or average performance assessment for two consecutive years. 

The government also decided to use the system of flexible working hours, including part time, in the civil service, in addition to using online training.

Among the incentives, employees on contracts (not on official payroll) will be able to obtain an unpaid leave for three months instead of one.

Meanwhile, the amendments extended the working age of Jerusalem Awqaf employees from 65 to 70 years, pending the approval of the awqaf minister. 

The Council of Ministers also approved, in principle, the by-law governing manpower at ministries and independent government units for 2017.

Under the regulation, the government has created 6,000 jobs at all ministries and units, and the new vacancies, the Cabinet announced, will be available for applicants in the second half of this year.