Transport’s bid for efficiency
Managers at Athens’s public transport companies will receive performance-related pay under plans to overhaul the way the city’s bus, metro, trolley bus, electric railway and tram are run. The government has said that it will merge some of the capital’s public transport firms in a bid to streamline services and cut costs. However, Transport Ministry general secretary Haris Tsiokas said yesterday that the efforts to improve efficiency would include penalties for managers who fail to perform and bonuses for those who are successful. The heads of the new organizations that will soon be formed will be instructed to ensure that there are restrictions to the amount of overtime and other additional pay that employees receive. Many transport workers are able to augment their incomes greatly through supplementary pay deals but the government wants any additional pay to be no more than 8 percent of their regular salary.
