Tax officers join others in blocking assessment

Following protests by employees in the public education and health sectors over an initiative mandated by the country’s creditors for the assessment of civil servants, tax officers and employees of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue have also boycotted the drive.

The union of tax officials, POE-DOY, said its members would block the assessment, claiming that it was aimed at laying off staff. It accused authorities of attempting to push through assessments in summer, “counting on the reduced ability of [employees] to react and ruling out all prospects for dialogue and negotiation.”

The union called on all its members to boycott the assessment and not complete the forms which the Administrative Reform Ministry has asked for. Unionists are to regroup in September and are mulling “collective and democratic forms of struggle.”

The head of the revenue authority, Giorgos Pitsilis, insisted that the assessment is not a pretext for redundancies and that employees will only be fired in extreme cases of inappropriate behavior.

According to the civil servants’ union ADEDY, some 70 percent of public sector workers have boycotted the assessment procedure.