Parliamentarian Khalil Al-Saleh has presented a bill on the leave days of employees. According to teh new bill presented, the second paragraph of Article 23 of Decree No. 15/1979 will be replaced with the following text: “Periodic leave is not be granted unless six months have passed from the date of accepting the work. The periodic salary shall be paid at the time of work.

If the available periodic leave exceeds 30 days, the employee has the right to cash days beyond this period — maximum 200 days — in line with the conditions and regulations set by the Civil Service Commission (CSC).”

In the explanatory note of the bill, the lawmaker pointed out that vacation is one of the basic employee rights guaranteed by the law; hence, the need to protect this right. He explained one way of protecting this right is to allow the employee to cash unused leave days, considering he decided to work rather than going on vacation. He said prohibiting the employee from cashing unused leave

days is a violation of the original part of the rights and freedom of workers.