Greece to slash 20% of public workforce "right now"

Greece’s finance minister has said he will implement job cuts immediately in the country’s bloated public sector after international lenders turned up the heat on the socialist government.

Evangelos Venizelos told parliament on Tuesday night: ”The message is that we’re raising the flag of structural change ... Public sector reform is going to happen right now.

“The country has to gain momentum and a sense of purpose in order to become competitive, to have a future.”

Mr Venizelos’s policy switch followed warnings by Greece’s international lenders that foot-dragging on structural reform would no longer be tolerated. Athens is already lagging behind on this year’s fiscal targets and pressure is mounting on eurozone nations to address its debt crisis.

The government pledged to cut 150,000 public sector jobs, almost 20 per cent of the total, by 2014 under the terms of a second international bail-out agreed in July.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1a1df098-d942-11e0-884e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1X1GLoxcX

That´s an extra booster for GDP figures. Germany and the rest of Europe will like it as it improves competitiveness. So what is Greece going to do with even more unemployed? Asking for the next round of EU help measures, hum?

 

Sooooo.....

20% of public employees get laid off and no longer get paid for doing little. Then, they go on "unemployment" where they get paid benefits for doing nothing.

Sounds like a solution.

 

no nation can compete with india and china when it comes to labour cost.

the West should be prepared to do more enternainment (like california does during the last 4 decades) and to attract more rich tourists from Asia.

The Italians are doing this perfectly, but most of the cash income lands in private hands, not state budget.

Greece should invest in some fancy, glamour brothels for horny little asian tourists!

 

False, watch the ramp up of the Africa continnent before your eyes. Tea farms on Mt Kilimanjaro with product being shipped to India. Cars being built for Chinese consumers. etc, etc. The middle class in China is changing quickly and India is taking a bit longer. One of the last places to exploit labor in the world is Africa. The US has failed to get substansial capital in the region and China will consume all. Lets see how the details play out.

Welcome to Neo-Feudalism,
Akuma

 

Instead of sacking them why not slash their salaries by 50%

 

great suggestion.. I was wondering if in the USA, the federal govt cuts salaries by 10% across the board.. how many federal employees will QUIT... darn.. none !! they should do it. across the board. and even make all states. city . counties. do it.. for all govt /public service jobs.. 10% hair cut. dont like it.. quit .and find a higher paying one..

 

Greece is a corrupt country, any number of reform moves will only see partial success and thus Greece will always be in debt and similar burdens. When corruption is in the culture then there is little hope for genuine turnaround.

 

i agree with the theory of africa undercutting the current emerging markets in the decades to come- i do fear though that i won't live long enough for america to cycle back to the top.

 

10%? teachers have guaranteed raise of 6% every year! regardless where the fuck economy is... 10% is nothing for them..couple years flat on middle of depression? no biggie..gvt should cut 50% and freeze that every year raise. then we'll talk..

 

As an American, I hope that doesn't happen here. When I walk into the DMV or Post Office, I always find myself glad that these people have somewhere they can be a part of something, get paid a wage, and keep out of my hair for the most part.

Can you imagine if these people, and all the rest of the incompetent bafoons squirrelled away in bureaucracies that I never see, flooded the private sector market? They would work their way into your company and mine, not by their own merit, but like the common cold virus infects your nose. By itself the cold virus is very weak, it dies after a few seconds or minutes on a countertop or phone, most even die immediately on exposure to air.

It is by the shear numbers of germs that flood out of your sick coworker's nose during a sneeze that land directly on your mucus membranes, or the huge wad of booger that some snot nosed brat left on a door handle, that one microbe makes it's way into your body. And that's all it takes then your flooded with virus.

One of those people would make it into every company. Can you imagine? No where to go. Every company run at every level by the same incompetence. And they would never leave, it's not in their microbe DNA to leave a job once they have it. They just move up when someone dies or retires. Just like the cold attacks your nose until it runs and runs, it establishes a stronghold and attacks your eyes until the water and turn red. Then it attacks your ears until the plug, your lungs until they cough and hack up little mucus balls, and set you into a fever and general malaise. The cold won't kill you, but you sure as hell aren't going to win any races.

Just like I disagreed with Reagan turning out the crazies from the loony bins; it worth some of my tax dollars so I don't have to deal with the loonies on the street. I also disagree with massive layoffs at gov't agencies; I don't want that brown wave of incompetence flooding the private sector and turning my great country into a sea of incompetence.