Greece to fire civil servants

I read another article that said the 1st 2 to go were...

1) A cop who was stealing debit cards

and

2) A guy who had 150 day unexcused absence


Apparently these weren't fire-able offenses before.
 
Caper said:
I read another article that said the 1st 2 to go were...

1) A cop who was stealing debit cards

and

2) A guy who had 150 day unexcused absence


Apparently these weren't fire-able offenses before.
Click to expand...

Hey, it's Greece, where Tax Evasion is a national pastime.
 
Your source says nothing about breaking the constitution. Most constitutions have provisions allowing it to be changed and "civil servants are set for life" seems to me to be a law ripe for changing. If this alteration is unconstitutional within Greek law it's surprising that hasn't been reported as an issue yet.
 
So the Greek Constitution made it almost impossible to fire a Civil Servant for any reason?
No wonder Greece is in the situation it's in.......
 
dudalb said:
So the Greek Constitution made it almost impossible to fire a Civil Servant for any reason?
No wonder Greece is in the situation it's in.......
Click to expand...
And every new government would hire its own people, wash, rinse, repeat... 40 years on and you have an extremely bloated government workforce.

Apparently they're getting rid of the bad workers, then not replacing those who retire until it's pared down to somewhat sane levels.
 
dudalb said:
So the Greek Constitution made it almost impossible to fire a Civil Servant for any reason?
No wonder Greece is in the situation it's in.......
Click to expand...

My country too. Political majorities used to fired employees hired by their opponents and hire their own partisans. So, any "civil servant" has a right to be paid until he or she dies -you can fired them but you should still pay them-. That's made Homer Simpson the model for a civil servant. The philosophy is this: you have to pay Homer for doing nothing. If he does 10% of what is expected of him, that's all social benefit. Yahoo! ... but, why I don't feel better?
 
aleCcowaN said:
My country too. Political majorities used to fired employees hired by their opponents and hire their own partisans. So, any "civil servant" has a right to be paid until he or she dies -you can fired them but you should still pay them-. That's made Homer Simpson the model for a civil servant. The philosophy is this: you have to pay Homer for doing nothing. If he does 10% of what is expected of him, that's all social benefit. Yahoo! ... but, why I don't feel better?
Click to expand...

In Australia the public service is meant to be non political. Yes it is difficult (but not impossible) to sack someone for non performance but politicians do not appoint most of the workers. They are given the jobs based on merit.
 
Apparently the Greek System managed to combined the worst features of a ossified,inefficent permanent bureaucracy with the worst features of a Tammany Hall level Spoils system.
At least in the classic Spoils system you FIRED the people your predecessors put in office and then put in your own. Not that I think that is a good idea (I am strongly in favor of a non partisan Civil Service based on Merit) but at least you did not get the huge bloat you get with the Greek system.

Nice going for the birthplace of Democracy.
 
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dudalb said:
Apparently the Greek System managed to combined the worst features of a ossified,inefficent permanent bureaucracy with the worst features of a Tammany Hall level Spoils system. Nice going for the birthplace of Democracy.
Click to expand...
I've seen it claimed that Birthplace-of-Democracy Greece vanished from history centuries ago, and that modern Greece is ethnically, culturally, and institutionally a descendant of the Ottoman Empire, not of ancient Greece.

ETA: And that therefore it's inappropriate to judge modern Greeks by the standard of ancient Greece, since modern Greeks don't owe any historical attachment to that now defunct culture.
 
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theprestige said:
I've seen it claimed that Birthplace-of-Democracy Greece vanished from history centuries ago, and that modern Greece is ethnically, culturally, and institutionally a descendant of the Ottoman Empire, not of ancient Greece.

ETA: And that therefore it's inappropriate to judge modern Greeks by the standard of ancient Greece, since modern Greeks don't owe any historical attachment to that now defunct culture.
Click to expand...

How very 19th-century of you.
 
theprestige said:
I've seen it claimed that Birthplace-of-Democracy Greece vanished from history centuries ago, and that modern Greece is ethnically, culturally, and institutionally a descendant of the Ottoman Empire, not of ancient Greece.

ETA: And that therefore it's inappropriate to judge modern Greeks by the standard of ancient Greece, since modern Greeks don't owe any historical attachment to that now defunct culture.
Click to expand...

It was meant to be a humorous remark.
 
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