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The decision of the National Assembly to pay bonuses to its employees caused a real storm of reactions. National assembly chairman Filippos Petsalnikos proposed that with their inclusion in the new full-time employees table they should receive productivity bonuses and Mr Petsalnikos himself will determine the amount of these bonuses, as well as who will receive them.

This special allowance will be given to parliament employees at the end of the parliamentary period, i.e., each June. It will partially compensate losses from the abolition of the so-called 15th and 16th salary of parliament employees, who have been receiving them for years.

Once the decision was made public yesterday, parliament representatives were literally inundated with phone calls from citizens who angrily testified that during such a serious crisis it is not possible to give allowances when the majority of people are suffering from the worst austerity measures ever taken. Many turned their attention to the fact that it is not clear how much the bonus will be, nor who it will be given to but this decision will be taken by the National Assembly chairman.

After the angry citizens, Parliament representatives explained that the allowance titled "The incentive to achieve goals in support of parliamentary proceedings," which will correspond to the additive to promote efficiency in the public sector, will be significantly less than the two additional wages that the employees have been taking for years as parliamentary staff. In particular, according to recent budget votes of the National Assembly in 2012, the corresponding item code 519 'additional benefits and allowances’ is reduced by one third compared with 2011. In particular, for the next year this item provides 5.1 million euros, while for the current year the amount was 16.9 million. The corresponding amounts for previous 'abundance' years are, to say the least, challenging: 20,087,000 euros (2010), 20,237,000 euros or 18,237,000 euros (2009), 17.4 million euros (2008) and 19.5 million euros ( 2007).

However, it should be noted the fact that the decision was adopted by parliament with majority vote provides that the special conditions, amount and manner of payment of the incentive, are determined by a decision of the National Assembly chairman.

In this way, there is not a ceiling for a particular allowance, and which employees will receive such allowance. It should also be noted that according to examples from previous years, it is a common practice to transfer funds from the budget from different fields in order to meet emergency needs.

Thus, while the "gold bonus" of the two additional wages corresponded to 600 euros per month tax free, for each parliamentary employee, the new productivity bonus will correspond to an average of 100 euros per month for each parliamentary official.

This course will apply, if the bonus is taken by all employees, and if the budget financing it is not increased.