Special salary system to be rationalized
The government will be cutting down the number of special salary categories in the civil service from 20 to around eight or nine, as well as introducing changes to their structure via the rationalization of benefits and the incorporation of most of that amount into the main salary, according to a Finance Ministry plan seen by Kathimerini.
The basis of the changes to come will be the new single salary system for the public sector introduced last year. The changes to the special salary categories will affect 188,000 employees from a total of 658,000 civil servants, i.e. 28.5 percent.
The money spent on the salaries of those paid under the special system is estimated at about 5 billion euros per annum, and corresponds to a 35 percent share of the total salary expenditure of the general government.
For uniformed officials – such as the armed forces, the police, the port police, firefighters etc – the ministry is proposing four salary categories depending on the origin of each official (army officer school, fixed-term military professionals etc.), with the incorporation in the main salary of the benefits handed out for the completion of each three-year cycle in the public sector, as well as other benefits.
A new benefit for those serving under difficult conditions or near the country’s borders will also be introduced, amounting to 100 euros per month.
