Minister says state contingency hirings in April-June period overshot ceiling

Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos on Monday accused the former SYRIZA government of hiring 9,000 more public sector workers in April, May and June than allowed for unplanned appointments.

Speaking on Skai radio, the center-right minister said that after coming into office in July, he found the state employing 57,000 contingency employees hired to cover extraordinary needs, which is well above the permitted ceiling of 48,000. He also accused the leftists of failing to make these additional hirings public, particularly as they came in the runup to the triple election that saw SYRIZA removed from power.

“I don't want to be unfair; it's common knowledge that for many decades governments pushed the number of contingency hirings up during election periods,” Theodorikakos said.

He added that the government has no intention of firing those additional 9,000 staff, as this would be unfair treatment, but added that measures would be taken for preventing such a thing from happening again.

Theodorikakos said that most of the SYRIZA hirings were concentrated in the areas of sanitation, security and food.

“What the previous government has left behind is a general picture of a collapsing state, where no one took responsibility for anything,” the minister added.