Civil service overhaul focus of minister’s meeting with troika

Administrative Development Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met on Friday with envoys representing Greece’s troika of international creditors to brief them on the induction of 12,500 civil servants into a so-called mobility scheme of layoffs and transfers.

According to sources, Mitsotakis was expected to broach the issue of an additional 4,000 layoffs in the civil service that Greece has pledged to the troika. The minister wants employees who lose their jobs as part of restructuring at two state defense firms — EAS and ELVO — to be counted off from those 4,000 staff, sources said.

Mitsotakis was also expected to ask troika envoys to give the government an extension for the second phase of the mobility scheme which foresees an additional 12,500 civil servants being transferred to other posts within the public sector or dismissed. Employees to be included in the second phase of the scheme are expected to come from local authorities, the health sector and social security funds.