Agreement on new promotion scheme for civil servants

Promotions in the civil service will be done in two different ways, due to problems that came up after the introduction of a new evaluation system, stakeholders seemed to agree on Monday.

Discussion of the new evaluation system for civil servants, and its concomitant problems, took place at the House finance committee.

The new system has placed more weight on the skills and qualifications of civil servants, rather than years of service.

The old system had been deemed ineffectual, as almost everyone used to be graded as ‘excellent’ – depriving superiors of the ability to pick the best for any given task. Also, promotions used to take place based on the date of hiring.

However, the introduction of the new evaluation system has led to a wave of protests from affected civil servants. A bill tabled jointly by the Diko, Edek and Dipa parties has sought to iron out some of the kinks.

Giorgos Papageorgiou, head of the Public Service Commission, told MPs that to date they have already received 385 applications for filling vacant positions. These applications must be done according to the current system.

The current system provides for a 45 per cent weighting on the evaluation of a civil servant up for promotion.

Under the Diko-Edek-Dipa proposal, this weighting would be at 15 per cent. But if and when the bill is passed, its provisions would not be retroactive.

The finance ministry as well as trade unions representing civil servants said they generally agree with the bill.

The legislative proposal under consideration would revise the weighting of the criteria governing promotions, for a period of two years.

In particular, the evaluation for 2023 would get a 15 per cent weighting for performance – instead of 45 per cent as the law currently stipulates. In addition, there would be an up to 25 per cent weighting for the superior’s recommendation, and an up to 30 per cent weighting for an employee’s ‘additional experience and qualifications’.

Under the bill, for 2025 the evaluation would be graded up to 30 per cent based on service reports for the years 2023 and 2024, up to 20 per cent based on the superior’s recommendation, and up to 25 per cent for experience and qualifications.

From 2026 onward, the performance assessment would be weighted at 45 per cent, the superior’s recommendation up to 15 per cent, and experience and qualifications would get a 20 per cent weighting.