Letter for support

 

GREEK PRIMARY TEACHERS’ FEDERATION D.O.E. 15a XENOPHONTOS str., 105 57, ATHENS, GREECE Tel.: +302103236547 – +302103245375

 

Athens, June 5, 2025

Ref. No. 527 To: ETUCE E.I.

 

 

Dear colleagues,

We would like to inform you about the acute problems faced by teachers in Greece in recent years and to ask for your help in resolving them.

1. Absence of dialogue and cooperation

It is now six years that the Greek government and the Ministry of Education, have completely excluded the educational unions from any dialogue on the formulation of educational policy. In fact, they refuse to discuss with us the problems of the schools and to listen to our documented proposals for their solution. The Greek Primary Teachers’ Federation  (DOE) has repeatedly submitted memoranda with proposals on all issues related to the support of public education, but the political leadership of the ministry refuses to enter into dialogue. Committees of “experts” are created to draw conclusions on education and to draw up policy, leaving out educational unions. Then they legislate in our absence, and we are informed about the bills from the media.

2. Legal appeals and prosecutions of teachers

Whenever the educational unions call a strike, the government files a lawsuit, in order to declare it illegal and prohibit us from striking. In the six years of its government, it has appealed to the courts 18 times against DOE, OLME (Grrek Federation of Secondary Education Teachers) and ADEDY (Confederation of Public Sector Employees)!
Five years ago, the government legislated the evaluation of teachers, which is carried out in a completely unscientific manner. The political leadership of the Ministry of Education treats the strike-abstention against this specific evaluation (a legally protected form of strike where the teachers fully exercise they teaching tasks while abstaining only from the evaluation process) as illegal and since then our members who abstain from any process related to the evaluation, while carrying out all their other duties normally, are being disciplined. Almost 2,500 strikers across the country have been referred to disciplinary boards and their cases are pending. In addition, the Prime Minister publicly stated that anyone who disagrees with the evaluation will be fired. This tactic constitutes a blatant violation of our constitutional rights and workplace mobbing, since teachers are constantly slandered by government officials in the media and are subject to strong pressure – legal and administrative – from administration officials.

3. Discrimination against contract teachers

Contract teachers in Greece do not enjoy the same rights as permanent teachers, although they share the same obligations. They are particularly discriminated in terms of the leave they are entitled to, and although the issue of these injustices has reached the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee through the intervention of the DOE, the government refuses to equalize their rights. For example, contract teachers who are mothers are not entitled to the childcare leave that permanent teachers are entitled to, but only a part of it and only under certain conditions. Furthermore, contract teachers, in order to be entitled to any leave must have completed a certain period of service, otherwise they don’t have the right. There have been cases of contract teachers with very serious illnesses who were unable to take sick leave and were ultimately dismissed as they were considered as “unexcused absent” from their duties.

 

4. Collective Labor Agreements

The D.O.E. has been demanding for years that a collective labor agreement be signed for primary education teachers. Although our board of directors has taken all the steps required by Greek law to begin the relevant negotiations, the government refuses to even discuss it and has never attended the negotiation process.

5. Economic impoverishment of teachers

Teachers in Greece are paid meager salaries that do not allow them to survive unless they work a second job. The starting salary is just €790 and the final salary is €1520. According to EUROSTAT data (2024), Greek civil servants are the lowest paid in the entire European Union. Furthermore, according to OECD data (Education at a Glance 2024), the real salaries of Greek teachers decreased by 9%, while worldwide teachers’ salaries increased by an average of 4%.

6. Intensification of workload

There is no administrative staff in Greek schools, resulting in teachers taking on all the secretarial tasks of the school units. In recent years, through the laws passed by the government, and especially the law regarding evaluation, the secretarial tasks of teachers have increased dramatically and they are forced with no additional pay to work many extra hours which has serious impact on the quality of their working life and their well-being overall.

7. Underfunding of schools

While spending on primary to tertiary education represents on average 10% of total public spending in OECD countries, in Greece this percentage amounts to just 6.1% (2020), which is the lowest among the 38 OECD member countries. In 2022, the percentage of public spending concerning education in Greece, including non-formal learning, reaches approximately 7%, remaining at the lowest level, together with Italy. This underfunding has significant implications for the operation of schools. Several teaching positions are not filled, especially in border areas, with the result that a significant number of students in Greece do not have teachers for all subjects until the end of the school year. There are schools that do not have enough money to cover their basic needs, such as stationery, heating or sanitary products. The maintenance of school buildings has not been carried out for years to the extent and frequency required, as a result of which we constantly have many reports of dangerous phenomena, such as flooding of buildings when it rains or even roof collapses.

8. Burnout and mass resignations

All the above conditions have led to a large increase in the burnout of teachers in Greece, which, consequently, leads to mass resignations. In recent years, there have been recorded a continuously increasing number of teacher resignations, while this school year we had a record number of resignations, amounting to approximately 1,500. The extremely difficult working conditions, impoverishment and the undemocratic way in which the government manages educational policy lead to the phenomenon of the Great Resignation in Greece as well. There is already a shortage of teachers in some specialties, as they choose other careers.

As the board of directors of the Greek Primary Teachers’ Federation, we ask you to assist the teachers of Greece in every possible way and to inform the competent bodies of the European Union. We are at your disposal for any clarification but also to discuss the ways in which you could possibly support us.

We, kindly, ask you, to issue a statement condemning the government for its undemocratic and intimidating tactics, particularly for the continuous appeals to the courts and for the teachers who are being disciplined for participating in the strike-abstention, entirely violating  the trade union rights of teachers.

 

The President Spyros Marinis

The General Secretary Thanasis Kikinis

 

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