Doctors at Greek state hospitals are lodging a mass appeal against cuts to their salaries that have been imposed as part of troika-mandated reforms over the past two years.
The union representing doctors at public hospitals in Athens and Piraeus (EINAP) briefed institutions across Attica on July 23 on its decision to coordinate with the union representing doctors at state hospitals elsewhere in Greece (OENGE) in submitting collective appeals against the cuts.
| OENGE president Dimitris Varnavas said that a total of 45 appeals from local unions across the country are now being submitted to administrative courts and will then go to the Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, which recently upheld similar appeals by the country’s police and armed forces employees.The Council of State which determines whether government laws and decisions are compatible with the constitution, recently made decisions that reversed a number of wage cuts imposed as part of troika-mandated austerity. These decisions restored the pay of judges, military, police and other uniformed state employees to 2012 levels.The doctors hope the vindication of the police and military staff will act as a legal precedent, leading to cuts to their salaries being deemed unconstitutional too. They have suffered sharper reductions, 40 percent cuts in some cases.The IMF criticised the recent decisions of the Council of State but the President of the Council of State Sotiris Rizos has claimed there is media campaign being carried out against the court and its decisions. ”The propaganda is being exercised in an organised manner and could potentially harm the freedom of judgment of the judiciary and, eventually, cause irreparable harm to the judicial work of the court.” Read more here.
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