civil service

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You Almost Definitely Couldn't Pass This Indian Exam

Yet hundreds of thousands take super-hard test for jobs they know nothing about

(Newser) - Nearly half a million citizens converged upon 71 cities in India Sunday to try their hand at what's described by coaching expert PS Ravindran as "the mother of all written exams," the Global Post reports. It's the nation's civil services test, and it's not...

Greece Ditches Vacation Perk ... for Using Computers

Yep, civil servants got an extra 6 days a year if they worked in front of one

(Newser) - Back in 1989, Greece decided that any of its public-sector workers who had the misfortune of working in front of a computer all day deserved extra time off for that horror—an extra six days a year, to be precise, on top of their regular vacation time. Over the years,...

Chinese Workers Ordered to Smoke More

(Newser) - Seeking to stem the flow of cigarettes over the border and bolster the local tobacco industry, a Chinese county has ordered local officials to puff only local cigarettes, the Times of London reports. In March, Gongan county mandated that civil servants on its payroll smoke 230,000 packs of locally...

White House Scrambles to Find Operatives Permanent Jobs

Bush appointees 'burrow' in at agencies

(Newser) - The Bush administration is racing to put its political appointees into permanent civil service jobs before the clock runs out, reports the Washington Post. Federal job protection rules will make it tough for the new administration to dislodge the Bush operatives once they are in, meaning that they may keep...

French Fight Ban on Insulting Civil Servants

More civil servants filing suits when slighted

(Newser) - A Paris publisher has launched a high-profile crusade to legalize an increasingly popular crime: the insulting of public officials, the London Times reports. After being fined €150 for calling a cop a connard—or stupid bastard—Jean-Jacques Reboux got even angrier, and accused civil servants of abusing the law...

For Palestinian Hamas Faction, Surprise Payday

Fatah accidentally bankrolls rival's security forces

(Newser) - To victors in Palestinian factional fighting went the spoils, if temporarily, the BBC reports. Officers of Hamas' security force, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip from rival Fatah in June, were notified yesterday that Fatah had paid their salaries. The West Bank-based, Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority rushed to correct its...

Sarko Backs Down on Public Sector Cuts

Retreats from promise to trim French civil servant rolls by 50%

(Newser) - Nicolas Sarkozy has backed down from a campaign pledge to reform the sclerotic French civil service, says the Telegraph. The government has scuppered the president's vow to halve the number of civil servants, which Sarkozy had made a central feature of his policy of "rupture."

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