Police and fire forces to be boosted in 2023

Some 1,300 people will be hired in the police force and the fire department during the course of 2023, raising the government payroll.

According to an earlier briefing to parliament by Justice Minister Stefi Drakou – responsible for state security services – during the next year the police will be beefed up by 700 constables and around 300 special police officers.

Additionally, the prisons department will gain 37 guards, while the number of active firemen will increase by 245.

Drakou said that currently in the police there are 5,571 statutory posts, of which 545 are vacant and for which procedures are underway to fill them, while the budget for the 2023 fiscal year also provides for an extra 152 positions.

Meantime the fire department’s approved positions for next year will come to 932, up from 741 today, while 54 posts are vacant.

In the prisons department, guards currently number 365 full-time and 95 temporary staff. The budget for 2023 provides for an additional 37 posts.

Drakou said the police has rolled out programmes to gradually fill vacant posts, with different hiring procedures running in parallel.

In November of this year a hiring process initiated in 2020 was completed; and at the beginning of 2023 a new hiring process (initiated in July 2022) will be finished. Lastly, a new hiring process will initiate within 2023 for the hiring of constables.

“The police is of the opinion that, with the above planning, during the year 2023 it will be possible to fill the vacant positions,” Drakou said in her memo to parliament.

For members of the police force to assume active duty, they must have undergone the necessary training – three years for constables, three months for special police officers, and six weeks for contract police officers.

At the fire department, current approved positions come to 741 – these will increase to 932 within the next year.

More broadly, government payroll in 2023 will rise to €3.19 billion from €3.04 billion this year – an increase of 4.7 per cent. This covers salaries, pension payouts and bonuses.

In tandem with the higher number of positions in the civil service, as of January 1 all salary cuts instituted back in 2012 – part of austerity cuts – will be completely phased out.

The salary reductions began being rolled back in July 2018, and were implemented in stages every January 1 of each year. The final stage in phasing out the cuts comes into force on January 1 of 2023 – at which date civil servants will recover all the salary reductions imposed since 2012.