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by Panagiotis Karkatsoulis

<b>The problematics </b>

Reviewing recently the literature on the principal-agent problem I recalled the journalists’ recent protest when they accused the Minister of Economy that he threatened to unilaterally change their contractual relationship to the public sector. Here is the Greek example, I thought: the agent breaks the company agreement without common understanding- what do we need witnesses for in order to highlight yet another Greek oddity?

However a short further research cancelled the initial sense of certainty. It highlighted though the parameters of the Greek social, economic and political problem and presented both a demand for its adequate theoretical documentation as well as its practical solution with the greatest efficiency rate.

The case of journalists protesting against the Minister of Finance who wants to “turn them into civil servants” has an obvious and a hidden interest. Its obvious interest lies in the failure (denial?) of the parties involved to examine the issue beyond the obvious, inefficient (and, finally disastrous) dichotomies: The minister “wants to make civil servants out of the journalists” while the journalists claim independency for their profession.

The hidden interest lies in the search for hidden elements and the establishment of the positive/negative Greek particularity. As will be shown next, both parties cover half of the reality: The minister is not interested only in the revenues as he claims but also in the establishment of an authoritative and razing rationale (which he probably confuses with the show of strength demanded by the reforms), akin to the behaviour of the Greek political elites; on the other hand, the journalists together with their independence also desire the coziness of the (safe) public sector, a phenomenon linked to the logic of snatching the state-spoils from the stronger social groups.

Let’s take it from the beginning, with what evidence there is available and let us attempt a holistic approach:

<b>The case</b>

The “confrontation” of the journalists with the Minister of Economy came up because the Minister attempted to integrate the journalists who work at the National Television and Radio Company and at the National Press in the wage grid of the civil servants. They reacted and demanded implementation of the collective agreement instead. They cited the contractual nature of the job relationship and all the relative rights, such as for example, that the employer cannot unilaterally change this relationship.

<b>What they hid</b>

On the one hand, the Minister did not reveal their exact number. Obviously their violent integration in the wage grid shall not improve the financial records of expenses with savings of a few euros. The political system that has long ago adopted a paternalistic/authoritative rationale of social “education” (and recently of “punishment”) expresses through the Minister the desire to retain “control” (even through symbolic movements like these).

On the other hand the journalists hide the fact that their case is not about a “principal” and an “agent”. We are neither in the field of civil right contracts nor in the sector of public law. We find ourselves in a “non-position” where the contract form covers a civil servant status…

<b>Placing the evidence: </b>

Who are the “journalists”/ “agents”? These particular journalists working in public sector bodies are employed by:

· The National Television and Radio Company

· The National Press

· The Secretariat General of Mass Media, and

· Several Ministries (usually in the press office of the Ministers) and municipal radio stations.

According to the most recent published data (2003[1])!, the journalists included in the above categories amounted to 1330, 1174 (88%) of which worked at the National Television and Radio Company, the National Press and the Secretariat General of Mass Media.

<b>Employment relationship</b>

The question “how many types of employment relationship are there in the public sector, regardless of employee specialisation” has according to the Greek legislation the following answers only:

i. Statutory civil servants (who have to follow the civil service code);

ii. Private law fixed-term contract employees (these are employed for a fixed amount of time, after which their employment relationship with the state terminates);

iii. Private law employees with contracts of indefinite duration (this applies to certain areas of expertise, some of which are mentioned in the Constitution);

iv. Acting civil servants (consultants of ministers/politicians who work for the public sector as long as the minister/politician needs them).

Today journalists work in the public sector within the framework of the last three employment relationship types. Possibly in the past, before the so-called “Peponis law”, when civil servants were recruited with not so transparent procedures, journalists could have the first type employment relationship. But this concerns a past era…

Journalists fall into the second and third type. When first reading the law it is understood that the employment relationship is determined by the agreement of the two parties. However these types have been subject to so many alterations during the many years of their implementation that it is impossible to answer simple questions. For instance: the law determines that upon termination of a work contract, the employee must leave the public sector. However there is no law forbidding re-employment of the same person. Therefore if, upon every work contract termination the employer renews the contract for the same amount of time, is the employer acting in favour or against the employee? Those who hurry to answer “in favour” must also consider that these employees are practically held “hostage” by the client-serving Minotaur. On the other hand, those who will directly answer “against” should take into account that the public sector, in this country, has for decades been the most consistent and credible employer (who also remunerates its employees for “work” of dubious value)…

So who is “holding” whom here? Who is the principal, who the agent and what the trading practices?

The journalists claim that they are not employees “working the standard eight hours required and then leaving for home”; yet the facts show that more than half (57%) of those employed in the public sector do so under private law contracts of indefinite duration, which means that in reality they are public servants.

Of course, the journalists working under private law fixed-term contracts are in the worst position since not only do they find themselves in the above-described “hostage situation” but they are also usually paid on the basis of fee invoices.

The fourth type of acting public servants includes friends of the ministers that come and go together. In Greece this body is huge- 12% of Ministry employees belong to this type, a veritable nest of corruption and vice. However Greek public servants and the public opinion, addicted to the long tradition of client-serving and transactions, consider it normal that the Ministers choose people “who trust in order to do the job”. This implies that the politicians do not trust the 700.000 public servants whom they “do not know”…

Sadly, journalists also fall in this category. Article 67 of Law 1943/ 1991 is clear:

“For the staffing of the press offices [oftheMinistries] two (2) job positions are created for journalists, who shall be employed under private law. The said journalists shall either be members of a professional journalist organization acknowledged in Greece or shall have at least two years of service in a daily political or financial journal or wide circulation periodical or in the radio or television, which shall be proved by their payments to the respective insurance body under the capacity of journalists. The contract includes the mandatory term that it shall automatically terminate without compensation payment and the employee shall be dismissed if the Minister who recruited the employee stands down for any reason”.

If the capacity of the journalist is not compatible with that of the public servant, how can it be compatible with that of the politician (whom he supposedly investigates)? Who is here the principal, who the agent and what the action?

<b>The compensation</b>

And now, to the “hard part”: Can the “payment”/ “compensation”, “wages” be separated from the employment relationship? Western rationalism is unwavering: No, and that is why we use/have used 3 different concepts in order to express the difference of the compensation depending on the type of employment. There is no unchanging work content outside the structure and the regulations that determine its provision. Parodies such as “I am not a politician but a professor/expert etc.” simply will not do to justify bad politics. The structure, content and function of the system where one places oneself are interdependent.

Likewise, Greek complexity can also be found here: The journalists who are public servants but do not acknowledge it (or rather acknowledge it a la carte) demand to be paid by the state (steady wages) but also demand that the amount of their payment not to be determined by the but rather by the collective contract of the Union of Athens Daily Journals News Writers! It is widely known that certain professional groups secured privileges through collective contracts, in the form of various benefits.

Therefore: Up to the vote of Law 4024/2011 (which includes the dubious provision for public sector journalists) the contracts in effect were the collective contracts regarding members of the Union of Athens Daily Journals News Writers and the Union of Athens Daily Journal Owners (according to the Joint Ministerial Decision Nr. 30985/15.12.2008 (Official Government Gazette Issue 2554/Β/17.12.2008) which established particularly favourable terms and benefits for journalists employed by the state. Taking into account that the Joint Ministerial Decision provided for in the Legislative Act has not been issued yet, the initial collective contract of 2008 is still in effect!

A related issue, with intense semiology: The Journalists of the National Television and Radio Company claim that they do not burden the state budget and therefore the issue must be settled between them and the Company. It is true that Company journalists are paid from the Company budget and not the state budget. However up to 95% (!) of the Company revenues come from the contribution paid by all Greek citizens in favour of the Company (state fee), integrated in Public Power Corporation bills. Therefore the cost of the wages of the journalists employed by “public” television (state television is the correct term) is transferred to the citizens. We will finish this paragraph citing alternative scenarios on how to determine the wages of state employed journalists:

1. Integration in the collective contract of the Union of Athens Daily Journals News Writers (therefore the Union shall perform all the negotiations with the media owners) which shall mean that they will no be employed under private law contracts of indefinite duration.

2. Integration in the wage grid (where the only possibility of negotiation with the Minister of Economy shall be the wage rank). In this case the Union of Athens Daily Journals News Writers must compose a comprehensive code of conduct for its members that work in the public sector, in order to ensure the minimum independence standards that are necessary to the profession.

3. Integration in a wage rank on the basis of a Joint Ministerial Decision of the Minister of the Economy and the Secretary General of the Press. In this case however they might not adhere to the wage rank which will violate any principle of equality, transparency and accountability.

<b>And the real game…</b>

The journalists are one of the social groups addicted to a particular way of co-existence with the state. Nobody can answer directly whether the current problems of the Greek state are due to the attitude of pressure groups or if the state itself pushes the social groups into such attitudes and behaviours. Most probably both are true in an interactive relationship which has been analysed above.

What next? If we agree that “such is the situation in Greece” and we discredit and condemn it, what comes next? What comes next is only the monopoly of the current, more or less de-legalized politics? Do the politics of the governing brokers, who do not even have the capacity to govern, nor any vision or passion for the country, prove to be the only way?

But do Greek journalists come down to just that? Are they characterized by the attitude of certain few colleagues or by the positions of their unions who try to compromise? Most Greek journalists by far are hard working and shine both in Greece and abroad… it is they who, in this country with the weak institutions and a old fashioned political system, have reached a level in their profession that often proves to be higher than that of many other networks with which (in our ignorance) we like to compare. Most journalists working in the private sector have repeatedly not only watched their wages go down (despite the collective contract in effect) but also the number of the job positions.

So is there any hope? Who else can provide a solution if not the journalists themselves? This amazing human potential is the only way out for Greece- everyone inspired by the values of work, innovation, creativity and solidarity. There are many like us. But we have not yet realized that it is us that will reverse the game of the tyrannical minorities. If only we find the way and the time to highlight the power of our life and fortify it (bottom-up or top-down, it’s not important). We are moving into this direction and despite the fight of the governing thieves and of aggressive minorities we will prevail.

In 2003, shortly before the Athens Olympics, many journalists were hired by the Secretariat General of Mass Media. We mention the numbers however in order to facilitate comparison.

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