Money For Military, Cops, Officers, Not Cleaning Ladies

Greece’s highest court, which said firing cleaning ladies was in the national interest, is forwarding the government an order that it must restore the pay of police, the military and uniformed officers that was cut for the same reason. Prime Minister and New Democracy Conservative leader Antonis Samaras’ coalition government said there wasn’t 3 million euros to pay the Finance Ministry cleaning ladies and fired them, but said there is 500 million euros to pay the officers. The Council of State made both rulings, against the cleaning ladies and for the officers, who make up a big voting constituency for Samaras. The Ministry of Finance said it’s awaiting the order regarding the uniformed officers to see the number of the officers and the amount of money that the Ministry should return to and calculate the cost on the budget and how it will be covered. Even though the decision regarding the unconstitutional reductions in the salaries of the uniformed officers was taken in January, it was only issued on June13 and the Ministry of Finance will receive the official document on Monday. The government’s economic team committed that it will implement the decision although it appealed a lower court ruling that favored the cleaning ladies. The government had said earlier that abiding by the order would undercut the reforms it had undertaken on orders of its international lenders, the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank that is putting up 240 billion euros ($327 billion) in two bailouts, most of which run out this year. Based on the implementation range of the decision (military, police, Coast Guard, firefighters, etc.) and retroactivity, the Ministry will see if the cost of this decision would be “acceptable” or “unbearable” for the budget. Theoretically the amount could reach 1 billion, but sources of the Ministry of Finance estimate that the amount will be around 500 million euros. The government will discuss with Troika in order to determine how the extra costs that were not included in the budget for this year will be covered. Samaras has vowed he would never ever again in his lifetime impose any more of the austerity measures that has cost his party 30 percent of its voting base and decimated his coalition partner, the PASOK Socialists. If the amount was up to 150 million, no additional measures would probably be needed, as this would be covered by a primary surplus of 1.5 billion euros, but the government has already given much out of that out in so-called “social dividends” ahead of the May 25 European Parliament elections New Democracy lost anyway to the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA)/ If the amount is higher, Troika and government have agreed to implement the solution that was implemented for the first time in Portugal in a similar case. Under that method, the cost will be covered by those who have received the raise based on a judicial decision through other equivalent measures, so the burden of the unscheduled return of money will not fall on everyone else. The decision could open a floodgate against government reforms as the courts have also ruled that the cuts in lump sums to pensioners was unconstitutional and had to be restored, but the government has ignored that and other findings that it was wrong to make big pay cuts, tax hikes, and slashed pensions. The order also means that the uniformed officers, as well as Parliament workers who were exempted from further austerity after threatening to strike, will not see their pay cut. Samaras had vowed to include the parliament workers under additional reductions but backed down.

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