Galery

1

Anastasia Balezdrova

To start cuts in the public sector or not, this is the dilemma of the leaders of the tripartite coalition government of Greece. They met today to resolve the issue that is burning their hands like a hot potato.

The competent minister of administrative reform and constitutional law professor Antonis Manitakis, who is involved in the cabinet as a representative of the Democratic Left, is against dismissals. Meanwhile, the representatives of the supervisory Troika insist on obtaining information on the exact number of public workers who will be dismissed by the end of the year.

The public sector in Greece can easily be defined as a "sacred cow" and the "encroachment" on it is expected to cause reactions. At the same time, according to statistics, the private sector reports 1,000 new unemployed every day.

GRReporter asked the opinion of three analysts: an economic magazine journalist, a professor at the National School of Public Administration and a professor of strategic management and organizational studies in Cyprus and Britain's University of Warwick.

Journalist Costas Stoupas described the issue of cuts in the public sector as "a taboo topic for the Greek society because the Greek state has been built around the public sector almost from its inception. So, the perception that the government manages everything has gradually formed. This Greek phenomenon in 2012 has many similarities with the old Soviet model, which Balkan nations know very well and in which the major part of the economy is closely connected to the state. It happens in the following way: In Greece, there are private companies, but a large number of them do deals with the state. Such companies do not strive to be competitive and to monitor the prices of their products. Their only concern is to secure contracts with the state, which, in turn, is not interested in the value of products but only in bribes and commissions. The result is an economy that develops in the wrong way. Then, the global economic crisis ensued and now, we all are paying for this."

According to the journalist, the ruling coalition partners will not be able to avoid the cuts, because the next tranche of the aid is the only economic lifebelt for the Greek economy. "Everybody knows that if it is not paid, there will be tragic consequences not only for the government, which will not have funds to pay the salaries, but for the entire economy of the country. I think Greece is at a very critical crossroads and the government will be forced to implement the reforms as well as to cut the first public workers."

There is acquiescence relating to the public sector in Greek society and therefore, the reactions to possible cuts will be significant, Costas Stoupas says. "There are a very large number of people whose jobs depend on the public sector. If we add to the 650,000 people working in the narrow public sector the number of employees in state enterprises or companies that directly depend on the public sector, then we are talking about one million people. One example is the shipbuilders who “invaded” the Ministry of Defence 10 days ago. It is believed that they work in a private company, but its only customer is that particular ministry and its only revenue comes from it. In practice, workers in such companies that work for the needs of the state and depend on the state budget are a kind of public workers. Assuming they are one million in number and adding their families, we see that we are talking about half of Greece’s population. These people struggle with the reforms, but the dilemma we are facing now after decades of poor economic management are either redundancy or bankruptcy. And I think that's quite clear."

According to the teacher at the National School of Public Administration, Panagiotis Karkatsoulis, "The problem in the Greek public sector is twofold: There are services that either do not have a scope of activity or it is very limited and on the other hand, there are staff working in these or other services. This staff could and should have been revised at some point. I.e., two things have not yet been done: identifying the unnecessary public services and clarifying the number of people working there, what contracts they have signed and what they do.

The situation here is chaotic and the sole reason for this is, I think, that all these years, the political parties have established their power over the public sector and therefore, over public workers. Obviously, they did not want to effect this cleanup during all these years. In practice, this actually means that the state budget funds a number of services without knowing exactly what they are and why they receive funds. The same is true for employees appointed, who either stay there without any particular work, or move to political offices without it being clear for what they are paid. I think that in addition to the administrative there is huge political responsibility."

Panagiotis Karkatsoulis said that the current Greek government has started to make an inventory of such services and employees, but acknowledged that "It takes time and money to have a true picture of the things and to take fair decisions. So far, an inventory of services has been made and checks of employees, who have contracts based on private law and were not counted in the census of public workers, are currently underway."

According to him, all this is taking place very quickly because of the two years delay. An additional factor complicating the process is the lack of political consensus on this issue. "I think that's the reason for all the postponements and delays."

Panagiotis Karkatsoulis, who was declared a public worker of the world in 2011, said that if the process were not accelerated, the government would be forced to cut public workers en masse. "If this happens, it will be like the mass cuts in wages and pensions, without any criteria. In all cases, it will be wrong because the closure of any number of services alone will not solve the problem. It is impossible to put things in order, if the actual needs of the public administration are not considered."

Professor Haridimos Tsoukas said that the constitutional ban on dismissals of public workers was typical only for Greece and possibly for other countries in the European South.

"I am aware of the situation in the UK, but I guess things are not different across Northern Europe. There is no statute of permanent employment until retirement as a constitutionally protected right. There is a core of public functionaries, who cannot be dismissed. But in Northern Europe in general, what we call the ‘public sector,’ is subject to disciplinary law. This means that a government employee can be dismissed if he or she breaks the rules or systematically fails to perform his or her duties.

Things are different here, because the status of public workers is overexposed. On the one hand, is the fact that an article of the constitution establishes it. On the other, it is part of the culture of the modern Greeks: when you are a public worker, you are absolutely secure. From the first approval of the ban on dismissal of public workers in the 1930s to today, it has been one of the most basic informal rights. It is just that the people themselves expect and know that when employed in a public service they will not leave it until the end of their working life.
  
"It is time to change that," the teacher said, stating that despite the constitutional ban, there are categories of employees in the public sector who may be dismissed under certain conditions. "The same should apply for those who are found to be unsuitable for the job. Even the current Minister says that employees who have committed a fraud and those who do not actually go to work should be dismissed as well as the unsuitable employees. Pay attention to the terms. We had to be close to bankruptcy to remember that there are such people in the public sector."

"The reasons are political. The Minister of Administrative Reform was proposed by and sympathizes with the Democratic Left. Generally speaking, the Greek left has always had a statesmanlike vision of the country and society. They define the ban on dismissal of public workers as an "achievement of the labour movement in Greece." It is their position that poses serious obstacles to the probability that their opinions will change. This does not surprise me, although I would expect a modern left to learn more from the experience of Scandinavian countries, where social democratic parties have been governing for decades and where dismissals in the public sector are not prohibited. This is the European South."

The talks about the expected cuts sparked many discussions in the social media. Here are some of the most typical of them:

"If you steal money from your employer’s till, you are an ordinary thief. However, if your employer is the state, you're just an "employee who has broken his oath."

"I just want to make it out. Are we negotiating with the Troika about whether to dismiss offending public workers?"

"Look, they may close several government offices, but there will be no dismissals. Why is that? It is because they have the right to vote in elections."