Greece / IMF apologizes for asking to sack 22,000 people by mistake

The IMF has apologized for a mistaken email demanding Greece dismisses thousands more civil servants than the earlier agreed lay off of 27,000 employees. The letter spurred concerns in the government that more layoffs will be demanded.

The email arrived at the Greek Ministry of Finance from the IMF Representative in Athens Bob Traa before the Eurogroup discussions on the next tranche of 31.5 billion euro bailout on Tuesday. Confused Government officials rejected the IMF’s new requirement, a source in the Greek government told AFP. The IMF apologised and explained the letter was sent by mistake, reports the Ta Nea newspaper. The paper’s sources in the cabinet do not rule out the issue of new layoffs could be raised again by the creditors if the country doesn’t fulfill the agreement to dismiss two thousand employees by the end of the year.

Unemployment in Greece has already climbed to over 25 per cent according to official figures. Greece has pledged to implement a series of unpopular austerity measures to receive two aid payments, worth 5.0 and 8.3 billion euros, by the end of the year. This includes firing 125,000 government employees by 2016, among them 27,000 workers in 2014…

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via IMF asks Greece to sack 22,000 people by mistake — RT.

*-*

Government sources on Monday refuted reports that the country’s troika of foreign lenders had called for an additional 22,000 layoffs in the public sector next year even as municipal employees continued sitins at hundreds of city halls and municipal services across the country to protest their inclusion in a fast-track scheme to redundancy.

The demand for 22,000 layoffs next year is said to have been forwarded to the Finance Ministry by International Monetary Fund officials, a report denied by ministry officials. According to the unconfirmed reports, these layoffs would be in addition to the total of 80,000 civil service departures demanded by the troika through 2016. Sources told Kathimerini that the rumors could be a tactic by the IMF in the ongoing diplomatic standoff between the Fund and eurozone officials on the Greek issue.

Meanwhile the government was struggling to enforce the induction of 2,000 civil servants into a pre-redundancy scheme by the end of this year, as promised to the troika…

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via ekathimerini.com | Sitins continue amid rumors of more layoffs.