OEV disappointed with House OK for 1083 new civil servants

The Employers and Industrialists Federation, OEV, expressed it’s “deep disappointment” with last Thursday’s approval in the House of Representatives of a bill to create 1083 new jobs in the civil service, saying this would widen the public payroll further and does not solve the problem of rising unemployment.
Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis had first announced the government’s intention a few weeks ago, which, he said, would absorb a number of unemployed people and help soften the blow on the labour market.
OEV said that it regards this situation as “extremely dangerous for the public finances” as it will expand the state payroll as this will add yet another rigid expense to the government’s budget. “At a time when with the slowdown of the economy, public revenues are unavoidably and dramatically shrinking, it is inconceivable to add an additional annual expense of 50 mln euros,” OEV said.
The employer organization said that the decision to recruit people for the government machine should have been taken at the end of the year, having previously cleared up the state’s public spending abilities.
“These decisions should even have been incorporated within the management of demands that accompany the renewal of labour collective agreements that conclude at the end of 2009,” OEV said, adding that “what the economy needs right now, more than ever, is to better utilise national resources in the productive areas and on projects that will revitalise development and create new and qualitative jobs.”
OEV concluded that “the expansion of the most expensive and least productive government machine among the 27-member EU is the last thing that this place needs.”