Probe launched into university overtime pay

Athens University has sent data it believes show there was serious fraud at the institution over the last two years, with some administrative employees being paid thousands of euros in overtime on a regular basis.

According to the information that was sent to the general inspector of public administration, Leandros Rakintzis, some workers were paid up to 1,400 euros per month in overtime wages.

More specifically, 276,946 euros was given to the same 74 employees in the form of overtime payments between January 1 and September 9, 2013. ?Is it possible that each month there was a demand for the same employees to work overtime?? wrote the president of the university council, Dimitris Bertsimas, who sent the paperwork to Rakintzis.

During 2014, a total of 54 employees received 240,386 euros.

The council believes that there may have been suspect payments to administrative workers between 2009 and 2012 but it has yet to gather the necessary information.

There is also a suspicion that some administrative employees were employed as security guards during a three-month strike to protest the public sector mobility scheme in late 2013 so they would not lose their income.

The union representing university administrative employees offered its full support to the investigation that will be carried out by Rakintzis.

?Our union?s duty is to protect university employees as a whole from any defamatory comments but also from administrative decisions that lead to their unequal treatment,? the labor group stated.