IT is a Cypriot’s dream. Landing a government job.
Parents in Cyprus, the old generation at least, are often heard nagging their offspring to try for a job in the civil service. Students with their eye on their future hold protests when the government decides to raise the retirement age of teachers or cut entry-level salaries.
“There is nothing sociological about it. It is hard reality,” said Nicos Peristianis, a sociologist at the University of Nicosia. “It is the benefits government workers have. When you retire you get a high pension plus bonus; the economy might be going down the drain but you get your raise because your union is very strong. What else would you want?”
In general, civil servants and workers in the broader public sector – semi-government organisations – receive better salaries than the private sector and most days finish work at 2.30pm, so they can relax for the rest of the day or have a second job – a usual phenomenon.
Then comes the huge benefit of job security and stability; a government worker must commit a very serious offence to get dismissed.
“In essence, as soon as you get the job you have retired,” Peristianis said.
And the benefits go way beyond the salary and pensions. Banks are more likely to give a loan to a civil servant because they are seen as having a steady job whereas people with the same salaries in the private sector could find it far harder.
Government workers also have access to free health care in state hospitals irrespective of their income. Unless they have three or more children, the rest of the working public must not exceed a combined household income of €22,000 per year to be eligible.
“Parents are not stupid. They see all these benefits and say why should my child struggle day and night?” Peristianis said. “It is so deeply embedded that it has become a value. From a young age they drill them with this idea …and they grow up thinking they have no alternative.”
But despite the material benefits of having a government job, the culture of the civil service in Cyprus may not be conducive to creativity and productivity.
“It pushes youths to dream of a position in a static service, which has all these securities and benefits, and stops them from being risky. They could be more creative or do something that suits them more as individuals,” Peristianis said.
Very often these people feel bitter, trapped in bureaucracy, unable to exercise their creativity and many times they have to endure superiors who may not be better than them but the system does not help change things, he added.
… And how to realise it
The desire for a job in the civil service has over the years created huge competition with thousands competing for a handful of state jobs at times. Even vacancies for cleaners are eagerly sought, with government offices probably the only places where one can still find Cypriot cleaners these days.
This desire has driven people to use other means to get the job – namely find someone in a position of authority to help them. Since the inception of the Republic, the industry of clientelism or rusfeti starring politicians and parties has been a fact of life.
Though frequently denied, everyone who is aware of the Cypriot reality knows that one can get a job in the civil service depending on who they know. This is not to say that everyone does this nor that everyone in the civil service is inadequate, but even people who thoroughly deserve the job may resort to it just because if they do not someone who knows someone will get it instead.
In a letter to Phileleftheros, published on January 30, 1998, former AKEL MP Andreas Fantis wrote that from the beginning – during the Makarios presidency and for all the years Polykarpos Yiorkadjis was interior minister – not even a messenger could be hired or be promoted if he did not have the minister’s or a representative’s approval.
“This is the truth; well-known, no one can dispute it,” Fantis wrote.
Fantis could not say what went on during the first presidency of Spyros Kyprianou from 1978 to 1983. But in his second term, when Kyprianou struck an alliance with AKEL and until its dissolution some 20 months later, “rusfeti had been institutionalised with an agreement between our parties,” Fantis said.
For any vacant position or promotion, the two parties prepared lists that were discussed in regular meetings, Fantis said in his letter.
“And because the lists grew from week to week and it was difficult for the (presidential undersecretary Dinos) Michaelides to deal with them personally” a civil servant was seconded to the presidential palace “who assumed the duty of collecting and recording the lists in a special book.”
Fantis said the same practice was followed to the same or lesser extent during the George Vasilliou presidency.
“Again, I submit this information from personal experience,” Fantis said.
His letter was included in a book by Cleanthis Vakis, a now retired civil servant, entitled Meritocracy: Hostage of the Institutions.
In another excerpt from the book, the left-wing trade union PEO, also accused the Glafkos Clerides administration – from 1993 to 1998 – of favouritism in public service hiring.
Avram Antoniou, the AKEL-affiliated union’s general secretary at the time, said from the 1,700 people hired in the wider public sector in the five of those years, only 212 were PEO members.
This, according to Antoniou, substantiated the union’s charges of favouritism.
“It is clear that the criterion of meritocratic selection is measured, among others, by a party’s share in the selection,” Vakis said.
Private sector: 1,000 euros a month, aged 45
Nicos Eleftheriades faces an uncertain future. At 45 and single, he works at a clothing store taking home €1,000 per month.
He made more money before, but this is the price you pay in the private sector when you want to get a job you like.
His hotel management degree and experience in working in the hospitality services obviously did not count when changing sectors.
He left the sector because he saw a lot happening that he did not like.
“I passed through higher paying jobs but dropped to €1,000 a month. I sacrificed €500 for better work conditions,” Eleftheriades said.
He recently took out a €130,000 loan to buy a flat after years of living on rent.
He realises it will be an uphill battle from now on.
“If I don’t work I won’t eat,” he says. “If the shop doesn’t do well, there’s always garbage collection!”
Taking such a big loan with that income and at his age may sound crazy. The monthly instalment alone will be around €600.
But Eleftheriades wants his own place now and is willing to work nights as a waiter to make ends meet.
“I’ll probably be working after my retirement age,” he said. The loan was made through a government agency that helps refugees as commercial banks would have refused to give him a loan.
When he tried borrowing 70,000 Cyprus pounds (€128,000) eight years ago the banks would not give him one making various excuses like his age and salary.
“There would not have been a problem if I was a civil servant since the paycheque is certain,” Eleftheriades said.
At 45 he can only look forward to working around the clock to pay off his home.
“If it is not done now when I can, after 50 I won’t be able to do anything.”
However, Eleftheriades is not bitter when he hears about all the benefits civil servants enjoy.
“It bothers me but I am not bitter,” he said. He does agree though that civil servants have a lot of benefits and the state pension system is “unfair”.
“Both them and the banks. There should be one pension plan for all where everyone pays their fair share.”
And the civil service salaries should be frozen for at least four years.
“They won’t die of hunger if they cut their hefty benefits that essentially can’t be justified,” Eleftheriades said.
Public sector: 1,200 euros a month, aged 25
TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD Stella Nicolaou has a bachelor’s degree and has virtually obtained her master’s, and yet she has chosen to accept a low-level government post available to non-degree holders.
Nicolaou (not her real name) took the government exams before she got her bachelor’s degree but was only notified recently to go for an interview, was offered a job and accepted. Taking an entry-level job making €1,200 a month in the state sector does not bother her at all.
“It is better than not having a job; it is a permanent position,” Nicolaou said. “In the private sector the same position with a degree would pay €800 gross.”
Even the best paying private job in her sector would not tempt her.
“It would be between €1,300 and €1,400; only €100-€200 more without the benefits of the civil service,” she said. “First and foremost I looked at the benefits and that it is a permanent position.”
And in the future she can expect to find an opening within the civil service for a better-paying position.
For Nicolaou the security of the public service was paramount.
“They can’t sack you. You see that in the private sector. You struggle all your life to reach a high position and when they see you make a lot they dismiss you.”
