ORDINARY civil servants do not think much of Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis’ cost-cutting measures, they said yesterday.
The general consensus which emerged from interviews with a number of the island’s middle and lower ranking civil servants is that they believe the position of Finance Minister is a responsible one, whose incumbent should be held accountable for the effectiveness – or lack of effectiveness – of his own economic policies and management.
“I do agree with the highest-paid people getting a wage cut, but with those lower down the salary scale I don’t think it is just or fair to ask this of them,” said Eleni Papaefstathiou, a civil servant working at the lower end of the salary scale were she takes home just €1,150 a month.
Eleni, who has three children, explained that nowadays in Cyprus private tuition comes in at €500 – €600 a month, electricity at €400 for two months and so on. Fifty years ago, by contrast, only one partner within a married couple would have to work, and the family would likely own their house also.
Stavrakis’s proposal, recently sent by letter to the upper echelon of state employees, asks them to voluntarily agree to a 10 per cent pay cut. Given that the total state payroll amounted to €2 billion last year, the savings the measures would involve if all the civil servants in the upper echelons accepted them seem rather small: a total of €1 million.
Alexis, who works in the Foreign Ministry said: “This scheme is voluntary, it is important to note that. Hence, even if they did extend this scheme to those lower down the pay scales, they would not seek to impose it”. He said that the main factor which most civil servants lower down the ranks seem to be concerned over is whether the proposed scheme will have any effect on their own salaries.
The proposal outlined by Stavrakis in his letter amounted to a temporary 10 per cent reduction in pay for two years, and to be imposed only if the personnel involved signed and returned a waiver agreeing to it.
Kyriacos, an employee at the Ministry of Communications and Works, was the only civil servant contacted who thought the scheme was a good idea – but only on the condition that it was applied to high earners across the economy, including businesspersons.
“At the moment I think it is not just economic motivations behind this initiative but, more importantly, political ones also,” he said.
He drew parallels with the situation in Greece and remarked that, if necessary and if implemented across the board, he was for such a scheme. He disagreed, however, with its being applied selectively to civil servants only.
