[MGSA-L] Greek workers!

Nikolaos Zahariadis nzaharia at uab.edu
Sat Jan 3 12:21:07 PST 2015


you're right Dan. The data are consistently in this direction and reasonably reliable although I am not sure they account for strikes, work stoppages, etc. The source does not say. Greeks would score high on such a list as well.

The issue in my opinion is not whether Greek employees put in more hours than others. It proves they are not lazy, but it does not prove they are not overpaid. The key is to figure out whether they are productive because one may put in many hours at work and accomplish very little. Many of my students, and certainly I, can vouch for that.

Also remember the data refer to (not just public sector) averages, and we are trying to counter stereotypes which are normally drawn up by reference to biases and "personal" experiences, which are by definition not average.

The problem with Greek public employees is the agencies neither have strategic plans nor do they define positions in terms of skills or tasks nor are there consequences when the job does not get done. This is one of the changes the bailout package has tried to implement to reduce the public sector's wage cost, but political pushback and fierce opposition by unions has reduced the debate to one of laying off employees.

Productivity is unfortunately a huge problem that does not receive proper attention in Greece. Much of the debate centers around salary levels or cost (ακρίβεια) without attention to the variable (productivity) that critically affects them.

Cheers,

Nikos

Nikolaos Zahariadis, PhD
Professor
Department of Government
410 HHB, 1401 University Boulevard
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham AL 35294-1152
Tel. (205) 934-3482
FAX (205) 975-5712
Email nzaharia at uab.edu
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Member of Editorial Boards: Policy & Politics; Central European Journal of Public Policy; Poverty and Public Policy: A Global Journal of Income, Aid, and Welfare; Critical European Studies series at Routledge

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FRAMEWORKS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION'S POLICY PROCESS: COMPETITION AND COMPLEMENTARITY ACROSS THE THEORETICAL DIVIDE
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________________________________
From: mgsa-l-bounces at uci.edu [mgsa-l-bounces at uci.edu] on behalf of DANIEL P. Tompkins [pericles at temple.edu]
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2015 11:33 PM
To: DANIEL P. TOMPKINS; MGSA MGSA List
Subject: [MGSA-L] Greek workers!

A friend just wrote me griping about "lazy, overpaid Greek public employees."  Others have likely heard that as well.

I don't have public employee data, but I did go to Eurostat and found confirmation that Greek workers in general put in more hours per week than Germans and most others.  I'm copying the data for 2013 below, possibly of use to others.  On a quick look, the figures seem to be consistent over the past  twelve years.

I have not studied possible weaknesses in the data.   Still, the results look impressive, especially because they pre-date the crash.

Criticism welcome.

Dan Tompkins


Turkey  52.0
Iceland 44.9
Greece  44.1
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the      43.3
Austria 43.1b
Switzerland     43.1
United Kingdom  42.8
Portugal        42.7
Cyprus  42.5
Poland  42.3
Czech Republic  41.9
Slovenia        41.9
Slovakia        41.8
Belgium 41.7
Germany 41.7
Spain   41.7
EU (28 countries)       41.5
EU (27 countries)       41.5
Euro area (18 countries)        41.3
Euro area (17 countries)        41.3
Malta   41.3
Bulgaria        41.2
Croatia 41.1b
Netherlands     40.8b
Estonia 40.8
Luxembourg      40.8
Sweden  40.8
France  40.7b
Hungary 40.7
Romania 40.6
Italy   40.4
Latvia  40.4
Ireland 40.1
Finland 40.0
Lithuania       39.6
Norway  39.0
Denmark 38.8
Liechtenstein   :
Montenegro      :
Serbia  :

Source:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&plugin=1&language=en&pcode=tps00071

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