Headache about 50.000 peoples' worth of early retirements

Marathon processes and meetings have been under way since early this morning in the Finance Ministry and the General Accounting Office. They will continue until the start of the conference call with the Troika at 20:00 in the evening.

In the office of the Minister of Finance and with the help of Secretary Mr. Kiriakou, the scenarios about staff cuts have been examined as far as the public sector goes, so that the need for redundancies is illustrated.

According to reports, the government’s effort now concerns using the means of reserve in order to lead 50.000 people to early retirement, instead of the “Troika’s recipe”, which speaks of redundancies of all newly-hired personnel who have earned no pension rights.

As protothema.gr reported yesterday, the measures on the table are:

- The reduction of the tax-free threshold to 4000 euros, meaning that even earnings of 350 euros a month will be taxed.
- Pension cuts for pensions over 1500 euros and possibly the suspension of pensions for all those under 55 years of age.
- The immediate redundancy of 50.000 employees in the public sector.
- The introduction of new objective tax criteria for professionals.

- The acceleration of privatizations planned for 2012, such as of the PPC and OPAP
- The abolition of double pension policy holders