Health staff to be moved to new jobs by September 26

All 1,665 of the employees in the health sector whose jobs were scrapped following their induction into a so-called mobility scheme are to be redeployed in new positions by September 26, according to sources at the Health Ministry.

A government decision last week foreseeing the creation of 1,754 new jobs at hospitals in Athens and Thessaloniki means that all the employees put into the mobility scheme will get new positions with dozens more jobs left for new candidates.

Employees included in the mobility scheme on Monday reportedly started submitting applications noting their preferences for their new postings.

The ministry estimates that the whole process of transfers will take between 15 and 17 days.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis has insisted several times over the past few weeks that there will be no layoffs in the health sector as part of an overhaul of the civil service pledged by the government to its foreign creditors. Greece has pledged to put 25,000 civil servants into a mobility scheme – where staff are put on a reduced wage ahead of their transfer or dismissal – by the end of the year and to lay off 15,000 public sector workers by the end of 2014.