“The overheating of the economy should necessarily mean an increase in wages. It is not enough to raise the minimum wage by law, wages must increase at all levels”
For the measures that the government will take in the labor sector, as well as in the burning issue of housing, the Minister of State proposed George Gerapetritis, in an interview with SKAI 100.3.
After his initial findings (reduction of unemployment – improvement of the quality of work provided – combating, to a very large extent, undeclared work), the Minister of State submitted a tripartite set of actions:
“-We must subsidize work and not unemployment. Relatively high unemployment benefits create a disincentive for real work.
-Working conditions must be improved, the prime minister made it very clear: the overheating of the economy must necessarily mean an increase in wages. It is not enough to raise the minimum wage by law, wages should be increased at all levels. The dividend of the increase in the overheating of the Greek economy should eventually be passed on to the workers, there are tools for this and I assure you that we will undertake them.
– The roof, ten years ago, was a paronychia that no one wanted to touch. The issue of housing in the coming decades will be one of the most burning. One in three of our fellow citizens spends more than 40% of their income on housing, which is a very high percentage. Also, one in three has debt, which arises from individual property, mainly through a loan.”
In other matters, he described the government’s desire for a professional state, which will be at the service of the citizen, without the inactions of the past – and the client state is only one of them, he added. A professional state means standardized procedures and Greece has suffered a lot because there were no standardized procedures, he said. Whereas, setting the goal of transitioning to a depersonalized State, which will not be directly connected, that is, to the face of the respective prime minister, G. Gerapetritis pointed out that decades of inactivity, if not two centuries, are now being “broken”, as he characteristically claimed.
No government in the post-colonial years showed the respect for public administration that the current one is showing, he further stated, noting at the same time that 90% of the responsibilities of the political leadership of a ministry have now been transferred to the administration. An administration chosen through a meritocratic process, for which the country has received praise from the European Union. Specific goals are now set in the public administration, deserving civil servants are rewarded.
Over time, on the contrary, in Greece, antibodies had developed against evaluation, which was perceived more as a disease. Today, however, teachers, civil servants, executives of the wider public sector, for example hospital administrators – all are evaluated. The point is not to take one’s position for granted, he insisted.
Another issue that was raised is the planning of legislative work and through this the assumption of responsibility on the part of the government. As is well known, every December the unified government action plan is voted on, with quantified objectives and timetable, per ministry. The plan is posted on the website of the Presidency of the Government, so it is subject to control, he pointed out. He invoked what the Prime Minister had said on Friday in Amfilochia, that he asked that his government be judged, not for its words but for its works.
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