Economist
September 10, 2011
Greece is being dragged kicking and screaming into confronting one of its biggest obstacles to reform: an almost unsackable civil service. Civil servants’ working week has already been increased from 37.5 to 40 hours, a way of reducing overtime payments. A unified salary scale is about to be introduced, smoothing out differences between ministries and slashing allowances. (It was supposed to have been brought in 13 months ago.) And, at last, jobs are going.
Under pressure from the European Union, the IMF and the European Central Bank, Evangelos Venizelos, the finance minister, agreed to arrange, by September 14th, mergers and closures of 150 state organisations and to transfer thousands of workers to a so-called “strategic reserve”. They will be put on 60% of their previous salary. Those who do not find another public-sector job within 12 months will be fired.
It is an embarrassing climb-down for George Papandreou, the prime minister. He has tried to avoid dismissals of public-sector workers, who form a power base for his Panhellenic Socialist Movement. Worried party officials say the political cost of his decision will be high. The jobless rate hit a record 16.6% in May.
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