Greece Will Weed Out Misfit Workers

Under pressure from international lenders to reduce the public workforce by 150,000 over the next three years, the Greek government is resisting demands to lay off civil servants but said it is going to identify 7,000-8,000 who have been disciplinary problems, violated codes of conduct, charged with corruption, faked their resumes, or don’t show up to work to force them out
The ministries of Finance and Administrative Reform expect that the monitoring will help to select enough workers who will leave the civil service by the end of 2014 along with early retirees, to prevent the need for layoffs, which the uneasy coalition government led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras wants to avoid, fearing political fallout.
While there have been no layoffs in the public sector, austerity measures demanded by the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) in return for $325 billion in two bailouts has created a record 27 percent unemployment in the private sector, some 67.1 percent for those under 25.
The plan was to be the topic of discussion on March 6 between Troika inspectors and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras. The lenders want an accelerated program to reduce the workforce before releasing a next loan installment of 2.8 billion euros, some $3.65 billion, that the government needs to keep paying workers and pensioners and repay banks.
After a meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels a day earlier, reporters reminded Stournaras that he had expressed certainty about a month ago regarding the approval of the February installment. The Greek minister responded that, “This time it is not up to me.”
Meanwhile, the new regulation for the settlement of expired debts to the tax authorities is almost ready after the Troika gave its approval to the Finance Ministry, realizing that debtors are unable to repay their obligations as things stand.
Ministry officials told Kathimerini that the regulation for expired debts is at an advanced stage, including a clause for the writing off of debts that cannot be collected (amounting to some 80 percent of the 55 billion euro, or $69 billion total), but on the issue of public sector layoffs, there is still a long way to go before Athens and its creditors reach any sort of agreement.