"Special Salaries" of Greece's Privileged Could be Cut

With the uneasy coalition government of New Democracy Prime Minister Antonis Samaras hunting high and low to find $14.16 billion in cuts demanded by international lenders, the administration is going after some hitherto-protected sacred cows and is planning to cut the “special salaries” of people who’ve been protected from a barrage of salary reductions imposed on civil servants.
Greek media reported that 12 percent cuts will be made on the salaries of military officers, police officers, judges, doctors, academics, technical teachers, reseachers, clergy and diplomats, who’ve largely escaped the punishing austerity measures that have been put on workers, pensioners and the poor  – who are facing yet more as the government has failed to corral tax evaders owing the country $70 billion – and another $12 billion every year.
The cuts to special salaries would be retroactive to July 1, which means by the time they are approved, those affected will lose a part of their previous two months salaries. Samaras is under the gun to make more cuts to satisfy the demands of the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF) which is withholding a second bailout, for $173 billion. Greece is surviving on a first series of $152 billion in rescue loans from the lenders who required big pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions so that investors and banks would get paid back first.
Samaras is facing resistance, as the relevant ministries are pressing to exempt uniformed combatants are exempted but the newspaper Protothema reported that cuts in special payrolls are already a given for 2012-2013, and will cover nearly 250,000 public sector workers. Also under discussion is elimination of the already drastically reduced two months annual bonuses for workers and pensioners, which would put a another big dent in their buying power, especially around the critical Easter and Christmas holidays. More than 68,000 businesses have closed in the last two years because the austerity measures have made Greeks slow spending almost to a standstill.
The government is also still mulling whether to lay off as many as 45,000 workers at a further reduced pay for one to three years and then fire them. The Troika wants 150,000 gone over the next two years, but Samaras is squabbling over that with his coalition partners, Evangelos Venizelos from the PASOK Socialists and Fotis Kouvelis of the Democratic Left. The measure will not apply to those employees that were hired through the ASEP process.
The economic team is also planning to lay off all employees who have committed a disciplinary offense or have an administrative inquiry ordered against them. In addition, employees with limited qualifications that are employed in organizations and public bodies that are merging or closing are also considered for being placed under redundancy. The measure will also include employees under a private contract of indefinite duration, and those who are close to the time of their pension.
According to the second scenario, officials are thinking of implementing a system of “pre-retirement maturation”, which will provide for the withdrawal of all public servants close to retirement age. These employees will receive an amount about 60% of their basic wage as an “early retirement,” but the plans have changed almost daily.