Early retirement in civil service slows

By a Staff Reporter

SOME 350 civil servants have taken early retirement so far this year, while up to a dozen a day are applying for early exit, the Public Service Commission said on Monday.

By comparison, 1000 people opted for early retirement in 2013, and 890 the previous year, commission head Pavlos Papageorgiou told reporters.

He was speaking after meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades, to whom the commission handed its 2013 report.

Early retirement numbers would almost certainly have been even higher had the government gone through with plans – hinted at last month – to tax civil servants’ retirement bonus. The administration then backtracked in the face of an outcry from employee unions.

According to Papageorgiou, the commission’s workload was drastically diminished from April 2013 onward, in the wake of a law freezing new appointments and promotions in the broader public sector.

However, Papageorgiou said, the House recently gave the green light for re-activating 62 positions in the civil service. Of these, 24 have already been filled, partly through the appointment of 14 air traffic controllers. The rest of the opened positions concern mostly managerial positions across the civil service, which are expected to be filled by January, and for which a great number of applications has been received.

The Public Service Commission’s workload in 2013 was divided as follows: 41 per cent relating to retirements and resignations; 22 per cent relating to filling vacancies; 14 per cent pertaining to confirmation of appointments and compiling of department reports; 13 per cent on transfers and secondments; 4 per cent on substitute appointments; and 3 per cent on disciplinary rulings.

Of the total of nine disciplinary cases brought to the commission’s attention, in two of these the civil servants were found at fault and forced to resign.