Parliament gave the final approval to the Civil Service Act and has referred the legislation to the Council of State for legislative and constitutional revisions, Parliament Speaker said. Two controversial articles of the law were approved. Article 38 states that government employees – who are evaluated as ‘highly efficient’ over two years- are entitled to receive a 5% financial incentive out of their basic salaries, instead of a 2.5%, over two years and that they cannot get this incentive more than one time in three years. The number of employees who can receive this incentive should not exceed 10% of the total number of state employees in one year. Article 37 states that salaries of state and government employees be raised 7% annually, higher than the 5% initially proposed in January and lower than the 10% or more proposed by some MPs to combat inflation. (Al Ahram Online)