Gov’t forced to withdraw state company salary raise

The efforts of the government and the privatizations hyperfund to streamline the salaries of heads of public sector companies (DEKO) were doomed to failure from the very start.

The regulation proposed by Deputy Finance Minister Katerina Papanatsiou on Thursday morning, concerning raises to the salaries of the directors of the major state enterprises, was withdrawn after just a few hours due to the stormy reaction against it during the period of national mourning for those who died in the eastern Attica fire.

That clause exclusively concerned the heads of the DEKO companies that have entered the Hellenic Corporation of Assets and Participations (EESYP), also known as the hyperfund, in the context of the process to streamline those state corporations.

That triggered a very strong reaction from opposition parties, which implied that the government was trying to bury the raises under the tragedy at Mati. The government then rushed to withdraw the ministry’s bill, with Papanatsiou citing a problem with the wording of the clause that did not satisfy the government. Main opposition New Democracy immediately spoke of an “admission of guilt,” while the Communist Party said the planned raises were a public provocation.