Universities face fresh wave of upheaval as staff strike
Universities appear to be in for a fresh wave of upheaval, following a three-month walkout that wreaked major disruption last fall, after the union representing their administrative employees called a 48-hour strike from Thursday to disrupt the government’s mobility scheme for the civil service.
The staff are protesting a decision by the government that foresees the rehiring of 600 out of 1,136 employees who were put in the scheme last fall. According to the agreement, the remaining staff will not be rehired unless vacancies open up at a later date. Unionists have argued that the previous education minister, Constantinos Arvanitopoulos, who was replaced by Andreas Loverdos in a recent reshuffle, had agreed to virtually all the staff being rehired.
The National Technical University of Athens and Patra University were occupied by protesters on Wednesday while staff at other institutions were in talks.
