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Thursday, 21 November 2024 | ||
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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-07-13Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] Labour ministry moving toward unified branch network for pension fundsANA-MPA -- The labour and social insurance ministry has plans to house all social insurance and pension services together in a single, unified branch network extending throughout the country, ANA-MPA sources revealed on Sunday.The ministry's plans envisions a single network to house all the services currently run by pensions and social insurance fund branches in various areas, such as those of IKA-ETAM, the OAEE fund for the self-employed or the farmers' fund OGA. According to the ministry source, Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis has already given instructions to a team of civil engineers to draw up a plan for housing all social insurance funds together in seven prefectures of the country, which is due to be submitted by the end of the month. There will be no change to the services provided but the aim is to improve the level of service to members of the public and do away with long waits and lengthy journeys. The move seeks to save on operating costs and free up real estate property owned by the various funds, which can then be used to generate extra revenue for the state insurance system. The changes are designed to correct the high level of fragmentation in Greece's social insurance system, which has been blamed for unnecessary waste in terms of costs and greater inconvenience to those using it. The move is taking place in the same context as the single pension payments centre and the single centre for collecting state insurance contributions. [02] Public-sector unions to contest staff evaluations at CoSANA-MPA -- The civil servants' union federation ADEDY and other public-sector trade unions on Sunday announced that they will have recourse to the Council of State (CoS), Greece's supreme administrative court, to contest an extension of staff evaluation measures that they say are illegal and unconstitutional.The unions will ask the court to cancel the decisions of Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that extend evaluation beyond the civil service to the staff of local authorities and broader public-sector legal entities. Their main argument is that the particular ministerial decisions were issued as a circular and were not published in the government gazette, making them groundless, in addition to violating a series of constitutional articles. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |