Many Greek public sector workers staged a 24 hour strike Thursday to protest against reforms to disciplinary proceedings for government workers that unions say will make redundancies easier.
Hundreds of civil servants staged protests in Athens and the country’s second city Thessaloniki following a call by the ADEDY federation of public sector unions.
ADEDY has said that a law proposed by the conservative government will exclude representatives of staff groups and magistrates from disciplinary hearings and that moves to speed up hearings would work against those being judged.
Vassilis Katralis of the Greek teachers’ union said the law, which could be voted Friday, would “make redundancies easier and criminalise union action”.
Disciplinary proceedings involving public workers can take up to six years which “puts a brake on productivity”, according to Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios. He has said the new law aims to “strengthen the transparency and efficiency of the sector”.
The reform comes as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confronts a scandal over fraud involving European Union agriculture subsidies. A minister and three deputy ministers resigned in June over the way money was handed out by the Greek authority for agricultural aid, OPEKEPE.
According to ADEDY, the government has sought to blame OPEKEPE staff for political errors. It said one senior OPEKEPE official was transferred after cooperating with EU prosecutors investigating the scandal.
Source: Agence France-Presse
