Interior minister promises to amend civil service law

Interior Minister Ivan Langer has promised to draft an amendment to the controversial new civil service law. Addressing police officers and firemen who staged a protest against the law outside the Interior Ministry on Monday, Minister Langer said he was aware of the complications that the new law had caused and promised that the ministry would start working on a proposed amendment as soon as possible. The new bill could be presented to Parliament by the end of the year and could take affect in 2008, the minister said. The law has slashed the salaries of police officers, firemen, prison guards and customs officers by making them work 150 hours overtime for free and scrapping bonuses for night-shifts, holidays and weekends. Hundreds of officers have left the ranks of the police since it went into effect at the beginning of this year. Minister Langer said that he would try to compensate the decrease in wages and would discuss the proposed amendment with experts.