Mitsotakis

Nikos Chrysoloras & Antonis Galanopoulos

Greek bond investors face a rollercoaster ride for the next four months as the government tries to contain the risk of snap elections, Minister of Administrative Reform Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

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New organizational charts were rolled out in Greece’s public administration with the aim of reducing the number of top-level civil servants and saving taxpayers more than 10 million euros per year.

A dispute between New Democracy and PASOK over civil servants’ salaries continued Tuesday, underlining the big task facing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos as they prepare to meet Wednesday to discuss the government’s strategy ahead of the troika’s return to Athens.

Changes to the public sector wage structure are at the heart of a dispute within the coalition that has raised concerns about whether the government will be in a position to negotiate effectively when the troika returns to Athens.

The Health Ministry wants to hire 4,000 permanent staff, including 1,500 state hospital doctors, next year.

It made a written request to the Administrative Reform Ministry on Monday as approval is needed before the hirings can be made.

Greece is yet to meet the civil service reduction targets it agreed with the troika for this year.

Coalition partner PASOK has reacted to leaks about the new pay structure in the civil service by saying that it has not accepted the changes.

In a direct attack on Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, PASOK said he should “learn to consult more with coalition partners and spend less time on leaks to the media.”

A protest on Friday by school guards who have lost their jobs and teachers placed in a civil service mobility scheme that saw dozens of the state workers entering the Administrative Reform Ministry in central Athens and shouting slogans from the rooftop ended without incident.

Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday accused the union representing municipal workers, POE-OTA, of resisting the government’s attempts to review the contracts of local government employees who had their fixed-term agreements made permanent almost a decade ago.

The fifth, and probably final, review of Greece’s economic reform progress by the troika is set to begin with Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis to meet foreign envoys on Tuesday morning while Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his coalition partner Evangelos Venizelos will meet later in the day to discuss strategy in an increasingly tense political climate.

Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis will be holding his last meetings with government officials on Monday ahead of the troika’s arrival in Athens on Tuesday, when Greece’s lenders will begin by examining the draft 2015 budget being drawn up the coalition.

The troika is particularly keen to see the government’s projections regarding next year’s primary surplus and fiscal gap.