The new multi-bill aims to dismiss about 15,000 civil workers by 2014. Some might characterize this as being "uncivil" especially in a period when jobs are scarce in Greece, but we here at HellasFrappe actually applaud this, and hope that more dismissals are made because this country has (too many) extremely incompetent, and certainly unnecessary, civil workers.
The new law also aims at cleaning shop and promises to dismiss workers who have been charged for corruption. Also, it will make it easier to fire people in the public sector -which until now never happened-, as well as add 2 working hours a week to schoolteachers schedules. Parallel to this it plans to open up internal positions for competition opportunities and finally it is reportedly also going to introduce a reduced property tax by about 15 percent.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras described the new bill as an upgrading of Greece's public sector, and HellasFrappe totally agrees with him. He noted that as soon as the bill goes through new positions are going to be created and fresh blood (with all the proper qualifications) will be hired based on merit.
But of course the media, especially some "progressive" channels are criticizing the decision to pass this multi-bill, describing it as a new Memorandum.
IMF Representative Poul Thomsen told CTV News that in Greece it is still considered a "taboo" to dismiss people from the public sector. He is right, because the public sector was the client base for the two major political parties, especially PASOK. In fact, there have never, ever been any forced dismissals of employees whose positions were either eliminated or who are totally incompetent.
Thomsen added that this dramatic rebalancing of the economy caused a sharp increase in unemployment in the private sector, while public sector employees were being protected.
But the streamlining of the Greek public sector is expected to meet with tough resistance, especially from the unions.
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