Greek public employees’ union federation ADEDY and other public-sector unions announced that they will have recourse to the Council of State, Greece ‘s Supreme Administrative Court, to contest an extension of staff evaluation measures that they consider illegal and unconstitutional.
The unions will ask the court to cancel the decisions of Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that extend evaluation beyond public employees to personel of local authorities and broader public-sector organizations.
Their main argument is that the particular ministerial decisions were issued as a circular and were not published in the government gazette, making them groundless, in addition to violating a series of constitutional articles.
Layoffs, evaluations and the public-sector payroll dominated a review meeting between Greece ‘s administrative reform ministry leadership and the troika representing Greece’s lenders on Saturday, attended by Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Deputy Administrative Reform Minister Evi Christofilopoulou.
On the issue of public-sector staff evaluations, progress has been limited due to labor action and refusal to cooperate by the public employees union federation ADEDY. A senior source said the majority of public-sector managers were “doing their job” and that the ministry was awaiting court ruling against the labor mobilization.
The discussion also included the new single public-sector pay scale, where a study commissioned by the ministry is due to be delivered showing major differences in salary between employees with the same qualifications and positions.
According to a senior ministry source, the Greek side promised to deliver on a target of 6,500-7,000 layoffs by the end of 2014 and, in exchange, troika officials will not insist on a new quantitative target for layoffs in 2015.
The lenders had apparently asked originally for an additional 6,000-8,000 layoffs in 2015-2016, mainly among those that were hired or became permanent employees using fake or tampered documentation, while also leaving open the issue of finding other employees outside the public sector through further abolition or merging of agencies and services.
The source also said that a draft bill for the OECD measures on lifting administrative burdens will be discussed in Parliament within the next weeks and may also include the “other prior actions”.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
