The Greek Secretariat for Greeks Abroad – an autonomous Secretariat within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Greece founded in 1983 – faces an uncertain future as a result of ten of its staff members being placed on a mobility scheme.
According to the provisions of the scheme, public servants placed on mobility are to be paid 75 per cent of their wages for a period of up to eight months until they are transferred to another position. If a position cannot be found, they face dismissal. The target of the Greek government is to place 25,000 public servants by the end of the year on the scheme.
During its thirty years of existence, the Secretariat invited to Greece tens of thousands of children and students living in the diaspora as part of its educational camping programs, and hundreds of low income pensioners. It has also subsidised numerous Greek community organisations and festivals around the globe, including the Greek Australian Network of Festivals, and it has also poured money into various universities abroad in support of Modern Greek studies.
This organisation – which has been downgraded in the past few years since the general secretary was replaced by a general manager – is in this predicament as a result of a government decision to place ten of its fifty-one remaining employees on the scheme.
The ten public servants who were transferred to the mobility scheme, were the only infusion of ‘new blood’ in the thirty year history of the organisation, were all former employees of a now defunct public institution, the National Institute of Repatriated Greeks and were employed with indefinite contracts. Earlier in the year, an evaluation report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for the inclusion of the Secretariat in the overall structure of the Ministry.
The latest developments at the Greek Secretariat for Greeks Abroad, as a result of the restructure of the public service by the Greek government, brings the ultimate demise of the Secretariat closer, because virtually all of its employees are approaching retirement age within the next three to four years.
The union of the employees of the Secretariat, in a press release, has expressed its complete disagreement with this decision. The president of the union, Takis Avramidis, told Neos Kosmos that his organisation “will do whatever it can in order to protect the jobs of its members and the future of the Secretariat” and stressed that “this initiative goes against the expressed need for Greece to strengthen its bonds with the Greek diaspora”.
Giorgos Aggelopoulos, President of the Oceania and Far East Asia Region of the World Council for the Hellenes Abroad (SAE), said that “what is needed is the strengthening of the Greek Secretariat for Greeks Abroad and not its virtual extinction”.
“It is disappointing to hear that several public servants from the ranks of the General Secretariat of Greeks Abroad (GSGA) have been made redundant,” said Costas Markos, secretary of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria.
“Taking into consideration the population of the diaspora – which without doubt is increasing due to many Greeks seeking employment security abroad – one would assume that there is an evident need for the Secretariat to be adequately staffed,” Mr Markos added.
The office of the Greek Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for the Hellenic Diaspora Akis Gerontopoulos has yet to respond to a request made by Neos Kosmos in relation to the future of the Greek Secretariat for Greeks Abroad.