It should be reminded that last Friday the unions of Greece’s Public Power Company (DEH) signed the scandalous collective bargain agreement with the management and thus granted themselves an additional wage per year in form of benefits. It has a duration of three years and was signed by 13 of the 24 DEH-unions. It is the first collective bargain agreement signed under the new SYRIZA government.
Here are the main points of the collective bargain:
- 1) Six euros per day for food “with the purpose to serve the operational needs of the company, the work conditions improvement and the productivity increase,” as stated in the bargain. (This translates to roughly an additional 150 per month in pay or an 8%-10% salary hike).
- 2) Ensure that no salary cuts will take place.
- 3) The DEH Management is now obligated not to proceed with any dismissals for any economic-technical reasons.
- 4) The management of DEH is obligated to pay a benefit to these workers for “successful subsistence,” and “subsistence”. The first refers to employees who have reached the top of the wage scale but are unable to file for retirement benefits because of the recent changes in legislation so they are going to now receive an allowance equal to "half step on salary scale." The second benefit refers to employees who have been unable to climb into the wage scale on account of their “incompetence” and even their “lack of skills” (totally preposterous).
- 5) Employees at the DEH's customer service centers (or offices) are going to be given four additional (paid) days of vacation every year.
- 6) Unionists are going to receive a “shift allowance”, and at the same time benefit from a “unionists’ leave” even if they are not "physically present at work.” (In other words, unionists will be paid whether they work or not.)
Without a doubt all the above is scandalous.
Greek Public Power Company (DEH) is a state-run enterprise with some 15,000 employees. In all fairness, some of DEH unions reacted strongly to the collective bargain agreements especially the “shift allowance for unionists” (and for good reason).
GENOP-DEH Chairman Mr. Fotopoulos, a former hardliner of the PASOK party, shifted over to the SYRIZA party several years ago and was even planning on running with the radical left party at the recent national elections but did not do so because of strong reactions from other SYRIZA members as well as voters.
On Tuesday he had the audacity to advise Greeks to drink vinegar in order to soak up their bitterness (or jealousy) over the wage hikes.
It should also be reminded that Fotopoulos and his 14 union "comrades" were charged several years ago for allegedly organizing a sit-in/occupation of the main public power offices in Athens on November 24-28, 2011, for cutting off power supply to Greek households. Prior to this, a number of senior officials at GENOP-DEH were also charged for receiving millions of euros in repayments for luxury trips and/or visits abroad which they never actually made. These cunning workers also apparently received expenses for trips by colleagues from other countries who never even travelled to Greece, and funds for consultancy entrusted to friends and relatives who never provided assistance. In fact in the 2008-2010 period, these unionists spent more than 800,000 euros (885,497) and presented bills for 1,194,497 euros. The report, which had been featured in the To Ethnos newspaper, had said at the time had revealed that between 2005-2006, some five million euros were spent on social tourism programs without the appropriate receipts being attached and without a reason being given for the journeys or the activities carried out during the trips.
(The above scandal was exposed in April 2011, when the inspector for Greece’s Public Administration body, Leandros Rakintzis, asked SDOE to intervene in the case after discovering that certain companies had issued excessively high bills for services provided to both GENOP-DEH and OKDE. Reports at the time quoted Rakintzis as saying that the SDOE report showed “great squandering of public money with a system of over-calculation of bills,” which was totally and without a doubt illegal, since Greek legislation forbids entrepreneurs from subsidising union organizations. On its part, GENOP-DEH rejected the accusations and instead spoke of a plot by entrepreneurs who wanted to sling mud at them, while Fotopoulos demanded the opening of the bank accounts of all of the company’s union figures, noting that he would be prepared not to resign, but to kill himself if so much as one euro could not be accounted for.)
HellasFrappe agrees that many DEH employees work under difficult conditions, but despite the wage and benefit cuts (since the beginning of the Memorandums) they are still in a much better situation than the majority of other citizens who for example are employed in the private sector.
Let us not forget that thousands of people who were employed in the private sector lost their jobs and their businesses because they could not bare rising energy costs.
Why are their wage hikes scandalous?
Simple, because the unionists and the DEH management did not carefully weigh the social cost of their agreement before they went ahead and signed it. These funds, which will now provide these already privileged workers with yet another yearly salary, could have been used to relieve thousands of unemployed persons from the private sector, who agonize over their daily survival.
If SYRIZA is fixed on proving that social solidarity prevails over any claims, then it will take back this decision. It has to stop thinking beyond its narrow interests and consider the needs of the masses rather than its unionists friends. If not, then SYRIZA will lose a huge chunk of support.
Also, the move only once again proves that Greece operates a truly unfair social system. Those on the "inside" benefit unduly, (meaning those who are supporting the government and belong to the public sector), at the expense of others and it is always "clientelism" as usual.
Some could argue that in the context of Greece's fiscal situation, the new benefits to DEH employees are peanuts, but they are a slap in the face of everyone who dreamed that this new government would introduce fairness as a social principle. Greece's unemployed and all those who have months to be paid must now be very angry when they see that a portion of the population who has been protected for years is now once again being rewarded with benefits.
I know this writer is.
It is scandalous and infuriating to learn that public workers are once again going to enjoy ridiculous benefits and/or allowances while those who work in the private sector have to be content with temporary and part-time jobs, decreased wages that range from 520–700 per month and uncertainty.
Signed
HellasFrappe
Refernences:
- http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=22770&subid=2&pubid=64149184
- http://www.zougla.gr/greece/article/proklitiki-anakinosi-tou-proin-sindikalisti-n-fotopoulou-gia-ti-genop-dei
- http://www.capital.gr/Articles.asp?id=2245455
- http://www.imerisia.gr/article.asp?catid=26523&subid=2&pubid=113470752
- http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/456124/adiproedros-genop-dei-kaname-mia-epektasi-sto-trofeio-na-pairnei-o-allos-ena-sadouits-ki-ena-kafe/
- http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=22770&subid=2&pubid=64149184
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