NEWS

Civil servants who changed contracts to undergo checks

State inspectors are to begin checking the circumstances under which thousands of people working in the public sector had their fixed-term contracts switched to open-ended deals in the years before the economic crisis struck Greece.

Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has given instructions for employees who fall into this category and work at the Culture Ministry or any of the country’s 10 biggest municipalities to be the first to be assessed. These local authorities include the City of Athens, Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Patra and Larissa.

The public administration inspectors, a body known by its acronym SEEDD in Greek, will check the credentials of some 5,300 civil servants during the first wave of inspections.

If bureaucrats are found to have been moved to open-ended contracts illegally during the imminent checks, they run the risk of losing their jobs. Greece has to fire 6,500 civil servants by the end of the year.

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