Zero hour in the cabinet for budget and redundancies

One of the most important meetings of the cabinet starts in a while and the ministers will be asked to decide on the course of our country in the coming period; a course that will be full of sacrifices in order to exit the recession.

The "draft agreement" that came as a result of the successive discussions between the government and the Troika will be handed to the ministers in a short while. This is an agreement that attempts to change the entire format and structure of the government and our society, to the extent that the decisions of the next hour will bring radical changes to the occupational, economic and social achievements of decades.

Until the last moment there were no answers to all the burning questions that arise from the known aspects of the Troika "recipe". For example, there is no answer as to what will happen to those who will go directly to redundancy status. That is, if their compensation will be affected as soon as their redundancy time has passed and they haven’t returned to their duties, or if there will be any arrangement for those who will complete pensionable service years and rights in the meantime.

Similarly, a lot of the data regarding the budget will be analyzed as well, aiming to make an important cut in the deficit (probably 6,5% in 2012) and set the foundations for a return to primary surpluses. Up until now the extent of additional cuts that might be needed, the privatization plan, the extent of intervention in government bodies and generally everything that concerned the area of confrontation with troika, has not yet been calculated.

According to the data so far, we are heading towards these dramatic changes:

   - pension for all at 65, but not compulsory
    -early pension at 60

    -public servants over 60, working in the public sector, at local authorities and at public bodies, are put in a backup job; the figure starts at 23.000 (with pension rights) and reaches 80.000
    -elimination of services and privatization of state enterprises and other public sector enterprises with a double aim of reducing staff by 300.000 and salary costs to 2/3 of the existing ones
   -one hiring in every ten layoffs and only where it is absolutely necessary
    -release of staff transfers from one ministry to another and from one sector to another
    -reduction of auxiliary pensions up to 60% and in exceptional cases up to 80%
    -pension and wage cuts by 20%
    -budget with less money spent on defense, education, health and welfare
    -encouragement of business contracts in the private sector
    -establishment of special economic zones with tax and wage exemptions
    -acceleration of the law for more flexible working relationships with emphasis on the arrangements for the redundancy rate and the calculation of damages

If the cabinet say yes to everything, the Troika will give the okay to release the 6th tranche, and according to the optimistic scenario move to the final settlement of Greece’s debt, either through the July 21 agreement, or through a new one.