Up to 2,000 staff to be hired for education and health shortages

Some 2,000 civil servants are to be hired by the government to cover shortages in the education and health sectors, Alternate Minister for Administrative Reform Christoforos Vernardakis said Friday.

According to the minister, the new hirings have been agreed with Greece’s lenders. Any other shortages will be covered by transferring personnel within the public administration.

Vernardakis said that his task will be to find departments that can spare staff so they can be moved to parts of the public sector that are struggling.

“I visited the City of Athens and all its services are understaffed,” he said. “The public sector needs hirings, not firings.”