[MGSA-L] Greek workers!

DANIEL P. Tompkins pericles at temple.edu
Sat Jan 3 12:34:05 PST 2015


Thanks very much, Nikos.  I'd be interested in reading more on this.

I did find a 2011 report from ECB
<http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecbwp1406.pdf> that is intriguing,
partly because Table 2 (p10) seems to show that there was (in 2010) less of
a gap between public and private worker compensation in Greece than in
Italy, Spain and Ireland.

It's important to follow the rhetoric of this. Public employees in US have
taken a terrible beating from politicians, so a large part of the
readership / viewership is likely to sympathize with disparagement of
public workers in Greece.

The ECB report does note that in Europe as here, public workers are
generally better educated and carry more serious responsibility than in the
private sector, so there's good reason to expect better compensation.

My.  So many variables!

I'm grateful for your comment.

Best,

Dan

On Sat, Jan 3, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Nikolaos Zahariadis <nzaharia at uab.edu>
wrote:

>  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
> www.uab.edu/government
>
> 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
>
> New from Routledge
> FRAMEWORKS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION'S POLICY PROCESS: COMPETITION AND
> COMPLEMENTARITY ACROSS THE THEORETICAL DIVIDE
> http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415719230/
>     ------------------------------
> *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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