About 4,000 Greek civil servants to lose jobs this year as part of troika deal
About 4,000 civil servants will lose their jobs this year and from 10,000 to 11,000 next year, according to the agreement reached between the government and the troika.
The reduction of civil servant numbers was the last obstacle to the latest troika review being completed and the path opening for Greece to receive its next loan tranche of 2.8 billion euros.
Following talks over the weekend, it was agreed that the civil servants who would lose their jobs would be from public organizations that are shut down or merged and those who are found guilty of breaching the code of conduct.
Civil servants who are within three years of retirement and want to buy out the remaining social security credits, could also make up the numbers.
Another 25,000 civil servants will be placed in a mobility scheme that will see them transferred from overstaffed departments to others where there is a shortage of personnel.
According to reports, the troika has acquiesced to Administrative Reform Minister Antonis Manitakis’s demands that the departing civil servants be replaced by new hires.
The plan foresees Greece having 180,000 fewer civil servants by the end of 2015 compared to when the crisis started. The original plan was for there to be 150,000 fewer bureaucrats.
