A significant change of the public opinion shows that 58% of the Greeks surveyed support the elimination of permanent positions in the public sector. More than seven out of every ten Greeks or 74% believe that the privatisation is "definitely" or "probably" necessary, shows the study of Public Issue. According to 41% of the respondents, the privatisation is "definitely" needed, which means that the government could make a generous program of privatisations. In parallel, 58% of the respondents have a very positive opinion about privatisation.
According to 69% of the respondents, it is necessary to support the private sector to push the development of the country. The attitude of the Greeks towards the private sector is much more positive than to the state and it is indicative that only 17% assess the work of public institutions positively, while 58% assess positively the work of the private sector. The image of the public sector has collapsed the last two years given that 40% of the respondents in the polls held in 2009 assessed the public sector positively and 35% - negatively. The present poll shows that 63% of the Greeks believe that the private employees do their jobs well, and only 24% of the respondents think with that the employees of the public companies do their jobs well.
The majority of the respondents (60%) agree with the privatisation of the state railways, the casinos and the state lottery. A large percentage (50%) support the privatisation of the public transport companies in Athens, Attica Bank and Post Bank. The same is the attitude of the supporters and opponents of the privatisation of the state-owned natural gas company, the postal services and the Agricultural Bank. But in each of the above categories there is impressive change compared to 2008 when the majority of the respondents was strongly against the privatisation of these companies. Even in the case of the state electricity company, in which 48% of the respondents are against its privatisation there is a change since 47% of the respondents in the last poll support it, while in 2008 it was supported by 40%.
The only company with increased percentage of the people that voted against its privatisation is the National Bank (52% against compared to 41% in 2005), which could be due to the strong criticism against the banking system and the funding of the economy. The citizens are very positive towards the private management of companies that were public previously like the state-owned telecommunications company OTE (58% positive), Olympic (54%) and the Commercial Bank (43%). At the same time, 58% are of the opinion that ("definitely"or "probably") permanent positions in the public sector should be eliminated.
Meanwhile, it became clear that the government program that aims to save 2 billion euros by equaling the salaries of the public sector employees will inevitably lead to further reduction of the allowances for the senior staff by about 30%. The unified payment system will be discussed this week and it is expected the Minister of the Interior Ioannis Rangousis to announce the general principles concerning the salaries of the public sector employees.
Some of the 53 types of allowances that apply to civil servants will remain, while others will be removed (allowances for various industries that apply for 160 000 employees). The family allowance, the allowances for unhealthy work and position will be kept. There will be an upper limit for the payment of senior officials in the amount of € 5,865 which is the current salary of general secretaries to the ministries. In practice this means that the salary of the President of the Supreme Court, which currently is 8,436 euros, will be equal to that of a general secretary to a ministry. Currently, the largest allowances are paid to officials of the Audit Court that controll the costs of the state and local governments (around 2000 euros) and half of the civil servants are paid up to € 1,639 and only 10% receive more than € 2,418. According to the Minister of the Interior, the savings target of two billion euros would be achieved after the introduction of the 1 to 5 scheme or only one employee to be appointed for every five vacant positions.
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