ΣΥΛΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΡΓΑΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΕΟΦ

Μεσογείων 284, Χολαργός,155 62

Τηλ:     2132040200, Fax:       2106537591

Ιστοσελίδα:     www.eofse.gr

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Athens, November 22, 2011

Message from the Association of Employees at the National Organization for Medicines (EOF) of Greece

Dear fellow colleagues of employee association of respective Regulatory Authorities,

We write to you to inform you about the current situation and future prospects of our medicine regulatory authority in Greece, the National Organization for Medicines (EOF).

We believe that you, our colleagues in similar National Authorities, should be aware of the impact of recent and past Greek government decisions on the quality of our services and efficiency of our work-routine in protecting public health in Greece and the rest of the EU-Member States. The financial crisis in Eurozone and the measures taken by the EU leaders and EU governments are an issue affecting all the EU countries, and when it comes to the Medicines Regulation field, they affect the level of the public health protection.

In EOF, due to the austerity measures, there was a 30% reduction in our personnel, scientists and staff alike, through forced retirement in a year. Further to that, a recent law mandates that our personnel is further cut through forced transfer to a vague "reserve status" leading to forced early retirement. The law mandates that all public servants over 55 years old and with more than 33 years of service will have either to retire or to be fired and transferred into this "reserve status" receiving just a very low "reserve" benefit (less than a third of their mature, after all these years of service, salary), until they reach the retirement requirements.

In EOF this will affect more than 20 employees, all of our senior colleagues indiscriminately, regardless of their position. In fact, 4 out of the 9 Division Heads will have to leave by the end of November 2011, plus a number of senior, experienced and key personnel. In addition the appointment of 7 young, highly qualified and trained scientists has not been renewed as it was supposed to, leading to their immediate unemployment.

These constitute a further 15% reduction, in essence diminishing dramatically our organization's scientific expertise and experience to dysfunctional and unacceptable levels. On top of all those, any new hires in personnel have all been frozen since 2009 under the "1 hire for 10 departures from the public service rule".

It is not foreseeable how EOF will be able to manage its services for years to come. All these while, on the other hands all EOF's employees have suffered a good 50 - 60% reduction in our salaries.

Despite this continuing demoralization and depreciation of our Organization, against which we have fought with strikes and efforts to have some exemption from this destructive law, the remaining employees strive to make-up for these huge resource reductions, but the situation has become really critical.  At the same time we still try to urge the Greek Government, the Minister of Health and EOF's Management Board to realize and reverse the detrimental effect on the competence and capacity of EOF to protect public health. The staff shortage will affect not only our internal role but our role and obligations within the EU institutions and regulations as an EU national regulatory authority.

Therefore we kindly seek your colleagues' support, encouragement and understanding for our problems. From our part we will try our best not to disturb any of your Agency's efforts and work-flow and inadvertently jeopardize your country's public health.

At the same time, we ask from employees of other EU national Authorities whose countries face similar situations to join our voices towards the protection of public health in the medicines field in all EU countries and peoples.

With collegial solidarity and appreciation,

The Association of National Organization for Medicines Employees (EOFSE)