Chaos continues to reign in Greek universities as the standoff between the government and striking administrative staff intensifies with no end in sight. The strike is now in its 11th week and has thrown universities into disarray, severely impacting thousands of students. Meanwhile the government is left with no good options for ending the strike as each side refuses to back down.


Background

The dispute is over the government's move to include administrative staff of public universities in it's 'mobility scheme' for public employees in its attempt to meet demands by Greece's troika of lenders (the ECB, IMF and European Commission) for cutbacks in the state sector. In total Greece must achieve 4,000 job cuts by the end of 2013. According to the scheme, employees lose their jobs but maintain a reduced salary for several months as they seek other positions in the state sector. If they are unable to do so their employment is terminated. University administrative staff are demanding that they be exempt from the measure arguing that there is no room for the cuts at universities which will be unable to function properly if staff are lost.

Two of the largest institutions, the National Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) have been effectively shut altogether for weeks with students and teaching staff now facing the prospect of having to write-off an entire semester. With December fast approaching, re-sit exams due in September have yet to take place while this year's first year undergraduates have yet to be enrolled. Other universities have been less affected so far but the ongoing situation and potential cutbacks threaten to throw higher education in the country into chaos for months to come. Needless to say, both the government and administrative staff blame each other for the university closures.


Recent Developments
 
The protests have since broadened in recent days with 48 hour strikes also affecting universities in Thessaloniki, Patras and Ioannina. On Monday the government infuriated the administrators and their supporters by releasing a list of approximately 1,500 names of staff who will lose their positions under the measure. Many have slammed the list as being riddled with errors, while the government maintains that any errors are the university's own fault for failing to provide the ministry with accurate information.

The ministry of education’s scheme was also criticised for being poorly designed and unworkable. Speaking to SKAI radio Katia Papanikolaou, vice-president of NTUA’s administrative staff said, “According to the list sent to us by the Ministry of Education, the administration of the Chemistry department won’t be left with a single employee. Who will enroll the kids? In other departments the administration will be left with a single person. Who will guard the premises? Who will feed the students?”

Many academics have also argued that the government should back down, agreeing that if the job losses go into effect many universities will be crippled as essential staff are lost, a case made by Professor Yannis Zabetakis in this opinion article.

For his part NKUA Chancellor, Theodosis Pelegrinis called the Ministry of Education's plan 'a total slaughter,' saying that if it went into effect the university would be left with only 300 administrative staff to meet the needs of 70,000 students and 2,200 teaching staff adding, “…their unwillingness to compromise has brought us to this point. The ministry imposed a measure that was wrong from the start and instead of discussing it and trying to fix it, in its efforts to push forward it made even more mistakes… I ask for the immediate suspension of the mobility measure and for there to be a dialogue between the academic community and the ministry so lessons can restart immediately.”

Academic staff also strongly criticized the government's move to publish the lists of administrative staff facing redundancy, with the senate of NKUA resigning en masse in protest on Monday.

The ministry however has responded that the payrolls of universities have been bloated by years of nepotism. Education minister, Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos said, “Why is all this happening over a handful of people? Are we trying to hide our dirty laundry? At the NKUA alone there are 313 instances of employees with the same last name.” Additionally according to a document released by the ministry there are 217 instances where administrative staff share surnames with academic staff at the NKUA and 66 such cases at the NTUA.

Meanwhile legal pressure to end the strikes and open the universities has increased with Chief Prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani calling on the NKUA chancellor to do everything in his power for the institution to resume its functioning, saying that he could even face criminal charges if this didn't happen.

The administrators’ walk-outs were also ruled illegal by the court for a second time on Wednesday, with the government and prosecutors threatening legal action and potential police involvement against striking staff if they continued in defiance of the ruling. However the administrators, seem unlikely to back down.

Moreover, student groups supportive of the strike have also occupied many departments of the NTUA and NKUA and the government would surely think twice before sending riot police into University buildings, a move that could potentially trigger an explosive confrontation.