A letter about wage cuts reaches thousands of workers

The time has come for shaving 25% off the “golden rewards” in GOC. A start was made with the non-profitable government corporations but Giorgos Papakonstantinou sent letters (as announced in protothema.gr on December 9) only yesterday to the administrations of all listed companies where the state is the major shareholder, asking them to cut excessive salaries. Although profitable, the government loses revenue from their dividends as a shareholder, while implementing frantic taxes and cuts on pensions.

Based on this new data, almost all workers lose in these enterprises, and they are either caught by the cap of 48,000 euros gross per year as highly paid enployees, or the 10% limit to overtime, allowances, travel, subsistence, which were mainly shared by low-paid and non-executive members. Although thousands of workers in these companies complain that their salaries are not usually over 2,000 euros, one cannot hide the truth, which is reflected in the payroll and official data, showing that millions of euros end up provocatively but lawfully in the pockets of a caste of workers and managers. This way, even workers who are not in on the trick get wronged but the average rate of their wages skyrockets when the fees of their colleagues are counted in. On this basis, the big losers are workers in:

    * OPAP, where there are wages of 50.000-100.000 per year (including committees and overtime)
    * PPC, where (according to p 96 of the last annual financial report of the company) the yearly wage cost  of the 22.367 workers was 1,17bil euros or 53.000 per head .(excluding employer contributions). In the 1st trimester of 2010 (before the cuts) ncomes reached 353mil euros; that’s 15.000 on average in just ¼ of the year
    * ISAP, where the average annual cost for 2009 was 49.732 euros (excluding employer contributions and other benefits)
    * TRAINOSE, where the average annual cost for 2009 was 56.554 euros (excluding employer contributions and other benefits)
    * ODIE, where the average annual cost for 2009 was 47.554 euros (excluding employer contributions and other benefits)
    * EAV, where the average annual cost for 2009 was 43.733 euros (excluding employer contributions and other benefits)
    * OSE and EDISY, where the average annual cost for 2009 was 40.300 euros (excluding employer contributions and other benefits)
    * ISAP, where in 2009 14% of employees received over 49.000

    * State Real Estate Corporation, where mostly trained scientists work, 22% of employees received over 49.000 euros in 2009
    * GAIOSE, where 14% of employees earned more than 49.000 euros annually
    * TRAINOSE, where 28% of employees received more than 49.000 euros in 2009
    * OASA, where 9% of employees received more than 49.000 euros in 2009
    * OPE, (Export Promotion Agency) where managers travel abroad, 20% received more than 49.000 euros in 2009

Overall, according to ministry figures, from the 17.000 workers in GOC’s, only 1.700 have wages that exceed 48.000 euros in total. It is estimated that the total of government corporations, including listed ones, is over 25.000.

However, in 2010, and after the cuts in March, in the non-listed corporations the underpaid employees who received less than 1.800 euros in total annually do not even reach 2.000. The rest (about 89%) earned a salary of more than 1.800 euros.