Most parliamentary parties as well as trade unions on Monday welcomed the government’s intention to undo the hiring freeze on permanent jobs in the public sector, with opposition Disy the only holdouts.
The government has tabled a bill that will end the practice of the hiring freeze on vacancies for full-time jobs in the broader public sector – a policy instituted in 2013 amid the financial crisis.

Elena Economidou-Azina, head of the Public Administration and Personnel Department, said the proposed law – bringing back this hiring – is “a must” if government agencies and semi-governmental organisations are to cope with the coming challenges.

She noted that up until now – meaning since 2013 – the process of approving hires for vacancies was too time-consuming, lasting up to two years in some cases. Among other things, it has resulted in an increase in the number of non-permanent employees in the public sector.

Since 2013, whenever the government wanted to hire people for permanent positions left vacant, it had to come to parliament and ask for the ‘unfreezing’ in each case.

Economidou-Azina said that hiring people on fixed-term contracts, or purchasing services from the private sector to meet needs, actually costs more.

In parliament, trade unions Pasydy, Isotita, SEK, PEO and Deok all agreed with the intention to reverse the hiring freeze.

Nikos Gregoriou, head of the Sidikek-Peo trade union said that the stopgap solution of hiring people on fixed-term contracts (non-permanent civil servants) has led to “the deregulation of labour relations”.

He added that the current process of needing to go through parliament is also moot, given that parliament has invariably approved the government’s requests to fill up vacancies.

Diko MP Chrysis Pantelides said parliamentarians have asked for details of the government’s plan and on the number of positions, but that in principle his party is in favour.

But Disy’s Onoufrios Koulla voiced his party’s strong opposition.

“It’s one thing to have a targeted unfreezing that’s based on needs…and another to have a mass unfreezing that will lead to thousands of new hires in the public sector.”

Some safeguards need to be kept so that the public payroll doesn’t get out of hand, he noted.