Greek government against layoffs

With the front in favor of the transfer of public servants, the Greek government hopes to persuade troika that is insisting on a drastic reduction in the number of public sector workers and considers it a prerequisite for the disbursement of the next tranche.

Prime minister Antonis Samaras will meet with the representatives of Greece’s creditors that are currently meeting with finmin Yannis Stournaras, and attempt to convince them of the need to ease the conditions of the program which exacerbate recession and cause social unrest.

He will stress that there can be no uncontrolled layoffs of public sector workers, something for which the heads of the other two government parties, Evangelos Venizelos and Fotis Kouvelis, also agree.

The Greek government says that a possible wave of dismissals of civil servants will spark unrest and create conditions of social instability that will undermine its efforts to implement the economic program.

It also believes that the plan to drastically cut State structures combined with the transfer (transfers of surplus employees to departments with ascertained need), are sufficient to achieve the objectives and to meet its obligations.

Via the transfer program, which is expected to include about 25,000 employees this year, and the evaluation of all staff, those judged as inadequate will be shown the exit along with those who have been indicted for gross misconduct in disciplinary councils, which are expected to work harder in the coming months.