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Athens: fired school guard attacks Minister

It was certainly not a good idea for the minister responsible for the mass lay-offs in Greek public sector to make an appearance near protesting school guards. Hardly had Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Minister for Administrative Reform got off his car outside the Interior Ministry in downtown Athens, when the group of angry protesters started to chant “Thug! Thug!” Within minutes, a man moved towards the minister, allegedly with raised fists.

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Mitsotakis’ body guards and policemen were quick to surround the raging man and push him away from the minister, while the protesters were booing the minister and wishing him to go to hell.

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Speaking to news website newsit.gr the raging man, Andreas Matsakas, said he had no intention to hit the minister, but only to talk to him.

“I am school guard in Aegaleio and they cheat us since four months. They found a category of people and they cheat us. I didn’t attack the minister, I just wanted to talk to him, to give us answers what will happen with us. I have 3 children, he should tell us what will happen with us. But he deigns to talk to us, are we an inferior class of people?

Speaking to zougla.gr Matsakas spoke of “social racism”, said that the school guards were orinigally unemployed form the private sector and that they got the job according to “social criteria”.

“We are unemployed, got the job and now we’re unemployed again. What shall I say to my three children?”

The service of school guards is to be assigned to private companies with EU funding, “with a salary of 400 euro per month for the workers,” Matsakas claimed.

In the context of the Troika-enforced “mobility scheme” 2,234 school guards were removed from schools last August and were sent home with 70% of their former salary. After a period of 8 months, they will be dismissed from the public sector, if no new work places are found for them.
The majority of the 3,200 municipality policemen, also on mobility scheme, the government had declared that they will be absorbed by the Greek police.
The school guards? Ah, who cares….
PS what I don’t understand in the whole “mobility scheme” is that civil servants are being sent home and get fired, while the government announces new hiring. But who am I to understand such complicated politics and the chasing of voters in the good old Greek politics game called ‘trade work for votes’?

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4 comments

  1. Hi I’m back KTG…I see you finally fixed the spam protection thingy… I wanted to post for a long time but just gave up a few months ago since I could never get spam protection to work. But, anyways, this is a sad issue and I hope at least the children did not view this argument as it’s not good for them. That’s what I hope the strikers and the ministers understand is what is best for the children, not their own selfish needs.

  2. Even more curious is that various public held companies offer private sector outsourcing contracts for office work.
    http://www.ktpae.gr/uploaded/anakoinwseis/PROSKLHSH_kren_8_11_2013.pdf

    Could not such services be carried out by Public Sector personell in the mobility scheme? Of course they could. Why then they are not? Because that would mean the Public Sector would have to operate efficiently, and it can not.

    • it is beyond doubt that the Greek public sector should be trimmed down, but they are uanble to go find those not fitting in, committed crimes, or even got the job due to favoritism. It is then normal that they ‘cancel’ whole groups just to meet the demands of the Troika.
      of course the public sector would do this job posted in the link, but how could the ‘friends’ come into money where the Troika pressures ofr expensidute cuts? It sounds weird and illogical but anyone living in this country understands very well how things work here.