Education Minister Andreas Loverdos indicated he would go against government policy and refuse to fire any university administrative staff.

Loverdos said that an evaluation of staff requirements in tertiary education revealed that universities have less administrative staff than they need. The minister, who asked for the study to be carried out, said this means that none of the 1,050 employees who were placed in a public sector mobility scheme last fall should be dismissed.

The government advertised in June 600 new administrative positions at the country’s universities so many of those put in the labour reserve last year are likely to be rehired. However, Loverdos, who was appointed in June’s cabinet reshuffle, now suggests that they could all get their jobs back.

“The results of the study were only made available to me today,” he said. “I had said from the start that there needs to be an evaluation and that its results should determine whether there should be any sackings. There can be no other rule.

“Since the evaluation shows that there is no need for sackings, nobody will be sacked.”

The private study indicated that Greece’s eight state universities need 4,086 administrative staff against the 3,630 that are actually employed. It also underlines that the ratio of administrative staff to students in Greece is much lower than the European Union average.

Source: Ekathimerini