Workers in the Education Ministry’s support programmes held another protest today, demanding guarantees for their rights.
Participants gathered from 9:30am at the PASYDY building before marching to the Presidential Palace, where they protested.
Police issued a statement on road closures in place because of the march, urging drivers to avoid the affected areas where possible, to be patient, and to follow officers’ instructions.
A ministry source told Phileleftheros that the government met the workers’ longstanding demand as soon as it took office, ending their employment under a service-purchase arrangement and converting them into salaried staff. The source said the ministry then prepared a bill to secure their status as ΕΑΧ/ΕΟΧ (open-ended/fixed-term) employees, in line with the workers’ request.
With that demand met, the source said, the workers now hold all the rights and obligations of ΕΑΧ/ΕΟΧ staff, as applies across the public service. Under current legislation, the source said, “they are not entitled to unemployment benefit,” adding that the Labour Ministry agreed with this position and that a wider legal opinion existed on the matter.
The source added that the ministry, in support of the workers’ request, had agreed to seek legal advice from the Law Office, with the process under way, and had also agreed to proceed with all necessary steps to announce the State Institutes of Further Education and other training programmes for the 2026-2027 school year.
Given this, the source said, any protest was unwarranted, since the government was responding positively to the workers’ demands and pursuing their resolution through the proper procedures.
