Public service recruitment contracts 

Question for written answer  E-001007/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Kostas Papadakis (NI), Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos (NI)

The contracts of 36 500 people recruited for the 2020 public service programme run by the Greek Manpower Employment Organisation (OAED) operating at municipal and regional level and covering the ongoing requirements of Greek social assistance centres and other bodies, are now due to expire.

In other words, after working for the programme for eight months, they are now about to lose their jobs, as did thousands of other workers in previous years, at a time of spiralling unemployment and against a backdrop of economic crisis fuelled by the pandemic.

These services should not be further cut back, thereby causing additional major hardship and depriving of its substance the 2021 programme, in which those currently employed will, in any case, be ineligible to participate. It is necessary to take immediate measures to circumvent and subsequently abolish such exploitative provisions that merely serve to regenerate unemployment and have been adopted by successive governments in line with EU instructions, in order to prevent employees accumulating three consecutive contracts that would entitle them to a permanent post, as was the case for other workers.

Given that the programme is eligible for EU funding (ERDF, CF and ESF),

what view does the Commission take of calls for these contracts to be extended immediately up to the end of 2021 and subsequently transformed into open-ended contracts, thereby helping to optimise the functioning of the bodies in question and the quality of the public service they provide?