Battle lines drawn over civil servants’ healthcare

A couple of months ago this column congratulated parliament for axing the additional free health services to civil servants that were not covered by Gesy, but we warned that Pasydy union would not take it lying down.

The day or reckoning is now upon us as the deadline for implementation, July 1, looms. The health ministry in the last few days has sent out a circular reminding civil servants of the coming change, which has put the issue back on the front pages.

The House very covertly made its move at the end of March to cut these extra benefits that included full dental – not just a yearly polish – for civil and the wider public servants, nutritional supplements for their pensioners, and free specialised lab tests not offered to the rest of the population under Gesy.

There were a couple of exceptions to this sneaky move by MPs that do not seem to have been published at the time but according to Phileleftheros on Monday it excluded some classes of employees in the wider public service such as firemen, police, teachers, army and small number of other categories.

The paper reported that parliament had also exempted the president, the House president, MPs, members of the Public Services Commission and a few others because our politicians it seems cannot afford to pay out in full for a dentist even though the proles have to.

At some point in April when Pasydy became aware of what had happened only after reading it in the Official Gazette days later, the union accused parliament of “secretly taking away their rights” and said the move would not be accepted. It has already submitted an amendment to what MPs passed to “restore their rights”.

On top of that, it seems the union has the full support of the finance ministry. When Pasydy representatives met the minister Makis Keravnos last Friday, he reportedly assured them the matter would be handled politically and a new amendment would be formulated and brought to the cabinet and then to the House restoring their rights on the grounds of equal treatment between the civil servants and the wider public servants who did not lose anything.

At the same time Disy’s Harris Georgiades has talked about an amendment to ensure all categories of public employees are equalised so that none get these extra benefits.

Civil servants have always had free state healthcare under the Government Medical Institutions General Regulations but with the creation of Gesy, there is a new legal framework for the autonomy of hospitals under Okypy and based on its operating framework, it cannot offer services outside of its purview.

This is a recipe for the kind of ‘lawfare’ that could bog the entire issue down in the courts for months or possibly years.

If we were a betting establishment, and based on the precedent that civil servants had full pay restored following salary cuts in the wake of the 2013 financial crisis, the odds would be in favour of the most privileged winning the day yet again.