ELSTAT launch appeal against secrecy clause
Employees at the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) have launched a case at the Council of State against the service’s chief, Andreas Georgiou.
The ELSTAT workers are arguing that it was unconstitutional for Georgiou to make them sign confidentiality clauses that forbid them from giving details about the statistics they work with to anyone else, including police and judges.
Any ELSTAT employees that breach this rule could be fined between 10,000 and 200,000 euros.
Georgiou, who took over at ELSTAT in August 2010, shortly after Greece agreed its first bailout with the eurozone and International Monetary Fund, faces criminal charges after an ex-ELSTAT employee accused him of colluding with the EU’s statistical arm, Eurostat, to inflate Greece’s 2009 deficit figure, thereby justifying the bailout.
