With the Greek government backing off commitments to fire up to 8,000 public workers who are disciplinary problems, have committed felonies, faked their credentials, are insubordinate or present problems in other areas, surprise inspections of ministries and and state organizations show as many as 20 percent of civil servants don’t bother to come to work.
The newspaper Kathimerini reported that the spot inspections in five ministries – Finance, Administrative Reform, Education, Health and Tourism – revealed the extent of no-show jobs in Greece where civil servants don’t come to work but keep getting paid.
That comes as Greece’s international lenders, the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) is pushing the government to get rid of 25,000 deadwood workers this year and 150,000 over the next three years in return for continued bailouts.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is reportedly trying to find ways to avoid getting rid even of the disciplinary problems with government officials complaining that labor laws are so rigid that it’s virtually impossible to fire workers even for serious breaches of their oaths and that the cases have to be heard individually.
Ironically, it was Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives and the PASOK Socialists, one of his coalition partners, who created the problem and the country’s crushing economic crisis by hiring hundreds of thousands of unnecessary workers for 40 years in return for votes, building a hugely bloated public sector with lax regulations concerning workers.
The inspections showed that many workers just don’t come to work or show up only occasionally yet keep getting paid and aren’t disciplined, the newspaper reported. The worst offenders were in the Education Ministry, where 20 percent of employees don’t come to work as required.
Kathimerini said the problem got worse during extended strikes last November by public transport workers and civil servants taking advantage of the work stoppages to stop coming to work or appearing only from time to time. The workers have reacted angrily to the unannounced checks, accusing the government of using “intimidation tactics” to make them show up for work.
The findings overshadowed stalled talks between Finance Minister Yiannis Stournas and Troika envoys as he left behind subordinates to talk to them as he headed to Dublin, Ireland for an April 12 meeting of Eurozone finance ministers who want reports on progress in implementing reforms in Greece as well as Cyprus, which is also going to be getting a bailout.
The news agencies Enet and Reuters reported that he engaged in long talks that made progress in some areas but little in others and that the negotiations are unlikely to be concluded until at least next week, further delaying a 2.8 billion euros ($3.5 billion) loan installment due in March and putting in jeopardy a 6 billion euros ($7.8 billion) payment this month.
“We are close… on the right path,” said one government source close to the negotiations. Stournaras made no comments to the press. He is reportedly waiting until all outstanding issues are resolved until he makes any announcement.
Administrative Reform Minister Antonis Manitakis had said they were negotiating “the final points” – the mass public sector layoffs – being demanded by the Troika. He opposes them and has previously threatened to resign if Samaras gives in.
Troika officials also met with Development Ministry employees to discuss a Greek proposal to lighten the burden on excessively indebted households and businesses, Kathimerini said. Other issues – including the possible reduction of an unpopular property tax and allowing debts to the state to be paid back in more than 40 installments – appeared to have been resolved, according to sources.
The government is expected to present as a victory for the Greek side the fact that Athens managed to plug a 4-billion-euros ($5.24 billion) “financing gap” for 2013 and 2014 without imposing additional austerity measures, beyond the so-called “prior actions” already pledged to foreign creditors in exchange for continued rescue loans.
The Troika reportedly wants the government to start by laying off 2,000 employees accused of disciplinary offenses. Manitakis has insisted that dismissals cannot be carried out until the cases have been resolved and is reportedly seeking ways to accelerate the process of disciplinary hearings. In any case, Manitakis reportedly objects to committing to a specific number of layoffs by a certain deadline.
Sources close to the minister said that the Troika’s call for another 20,000 layoffs by the end of next year is over and above what Greece committed to in the second loan agreement it signed last year, causing further friction.
Sources told Kathimerini that the Troika might give Athens some extra time – possibly until summer – to show progress in speeding up the process by which oath-breaking civil servants are found guilty or exonerated so that dismissals can begin.
The talks in Dublin will also focus on the problems of shaky EU banks, especially rattled by a confiscation tax Cyprus imposed on accounts of more than 100,000 euros ($130,000) which could have as much as 80 percent of the money seized by the government. Eurozone finance ministers are reportedly keen on protecting guaranteed deposits under 100,000 euros but even those are not sacrosanct, critics have said.
There is a growing sense that from now on the Eurozone will insist on confiscating portions of bank accounts to pay for bailouts and the mistakes the banks made, taking the money from people who had nothing to do with it. Eurozone officials have ominously warned as well that bank accounts are guaranteed against loss but not from confiscation by governments who can take the money whenever they want.
“While it is acknowledged that bailing in interbank liabilities may carry certain risks,” officials write in the document, seen by Reuters, “on balance, it is preferable … that these liabilities are not excluded from bail-in”.
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