The government has closed a loophole in the civil service law that allowed some government agencies to go beyond the normal procedure for determining salaries and benefits for employees, setting salaries at will, which led to significant salary disparities for government employees working at the same level, due to the fact that they work for different agencies.
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Last week, in April 2026, there was an amendment to Law n° 017/2020 of 07/10/2020 establishing the general statute governing civil servants, which appears to be a minor change made to the law, but has significant implications.
Changes to the ‘Special Status’ System
This amendment focused mainly on the so-called ‘special status’, which is a mechanism that was established to give certain government agencies freedom in the management of their work. However, over the years, this freedom has begun to go beyond limits.
Typically, agencies or departments that perform tasks that require specialized skills, such as those performing technical or supervisory tasks, could apply for this special status. This allowed them to change the way the ‘system’ of a given agency operates, including recruitment, promotion, discipline and punishment, training, job descriptions, and retirement.
In fact, the idea behind this program was simple and understandable, because not all government jobs are the same, and some jobs require special management methods. Among them, there are many agencies that operate freely under this special status, including the Revenue and Customs Agency (RRA), the National Development Board (RDB), the National Bureau of Investigation (RBA), the National Social Security Board (RSSB), and many others.
Closing the Salary Gap
However, the 2020 law left a gap in the definition of the special statute, which gave some heads of institutions governed by it the opportunity to interpret it differently. The activities in which some institutions began to use this freedom granted by the special statute, not only in the management of employees, but also in granting them benefits or other benefits in different ways.
A simple example of how this gap in the law worked is that a government employee who is normally paid a salary determined based on the general statute governing government employees, a certain institution, claiming that it had some technical needs, added other benefits or ‘additional allowances’ to him and did so based on the special statute it has.
Although these benefits are not considered a salary, they increase the remuneration he receives as an employee. This led to a certain period of time, there was a significant difference in government institutions, where some were paid much more than others, and had similar responsibilities.
This amendment to the law established a clear line on what institutions or institutions with this special status can do and what is not allowed.
In the amended law, the special status is used only in matters of employee recruitment, promotion, discipline and disciplinary management, training and work organization, but salaries and other benefits for employees are not on this list of permitted matters.
These explanations provided in the amended law, eliminate any possibility of establishing special methods of rewarding employees based on this special status.
What It Means for Employees and Institutions
The revised law, instead of directly prohibiting or prohibiting institutions from setting their own salaries, has chosen a simpler approach, by deducting salaries and other benefits from the activities of these institutions governed by a specific statute that they are allowed to do.
This means that salaries and other benefits for employees will continue to be determined by the relevant institutions, including the Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Public Service and Labor.
On the one hand, this legislative amendment will bring equality among public employees, because the determination of salaries will ensure that employees doing the same job are paid the same, thus reducing differences within public institutions.
On the other hand, it will help in the effective management of public employees. If different institutions are given the right to determine salaries themselves, it can create a kind of competition in recruiting employees, where institutions with more capabilities attract and retain skilled employees, while those with less capabilities face problems. The law was amended to address this issue.
What the Amendment Changes for Government Employees
For most government employees, the immediate impact is minimal. Their salaries and benefits remain unchanged. The changes the law brings, which concern the structure of personnel management, do not affect the daily life of a government employee.
However, for institutions that were already using or wanted to use this special status to increase salaries or benefits for employees, this option is now closed.
The leaders of these institutions still have the right to hire in special ways, promote employees in
