Troika agreement delineates civil service layoffs

The basic points of the agreement between the Troika and the Greek state for the public sector have to do with divesting layoffs from civil servant mobility for 2015, changes in civil servant assessment policies and manager placement procedures, as well as the establishment of a permanent mobility scheme.

Although the deal has yet to be made public, sources that spoke to TheTOC outlined the above points and also noted that for 2015 the staff that will be removed from civil service positions will come from four basic personnel pools:

- the 35,000 short term contract employees that were tenured after the so-called “Pavlopoulos” decree.

- delinquent civil servants that have exhausted appeals

-civil servants that were hired under false documentation

- the abolition or mergers of organizations and state run corporations.

The programmed 11,400 firings agreed for 2014 will proceed as scheduled, while some sources have insinuated that 5,000 layoffs must take place by the end of March, if Greece wants to receive the bailout tranche still being withheld. These include school guards, teachers, and doctors that did not tender requests to continue providing services to state health agency PEDY.

Also by the end of May the voluntary intra-municipal mobility of 3,000 civil servants and 1,000 more from social security funds, in order to top up the 25,000 persons specified for 2013.

The big gamble for the Government Reform Ministry will be to finish the permanent mobility mechanism by September's end.

As minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has stated in the past, the mechanism will put an end to repositioning of staff as that has been done until now, meaning in nepotistic and clientilistic ways.

Vacant positions will be registered and twice a year interested civil servants will have the opportunity to request transfers to other posts throughout Greece, according to a point system that takes into account social factors and competencies. The 2014 mobility scheme, to be agreed upon with the Troika, will move within this framework.