We certainly all feel with the plight of Greek civil servants and the cuts they have been exposed to due to Troika austerity. Their already hard working life spiced with benefits, allowances, part-time work but full-time payments and all possible kinds of benefits a union-government alliance could think of is getting even harder. The decaces long practice of granting hidden wages hikes to civil servants in form of weird benefits or allowance is over.
As if the cuts were not enough, the Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided to scrap one more benefit extra tailored for civil servants: the benefit of claiming six days extra leave per year for using computers.
Of course, sitting in front of pc half a day or 8 hours per day is certainly a tiresome work. But extra leave six days a year?
Nevertheless, computer work has been evaluated as more tiring than donating blood.
Greek civil servants get three days leave for donating blood.
A civil servant would be allowed to donate blood twice a year. This means, he could claim an extra 6-day leave. I cannot tell, if this blood-donation benefit has been scrapped as well.
By all means, a blood donor having a computer on his desk would enjoy extra 12 days vacations per year if he/she would happen to work for the Greek state. Only in Greece possible.
Mitsotakis told Skai TV that the working hours saved by getting rid of the computer-leave benefit would be the equivalent of hiring an extra 5,000 public sector workers.
PS While I am waiting to hear the benefits for the public sector after scrapping the blood donation benefit, I have stopped wondering whether Greek civil servants are children of a greater God, when compared to private sector employees.
work at computer can be dangerous
