University of Athens on strike over government cuts

The rector of Greece’s largest university has said that it has no choice but to strike against the government's plans to remove hundreds of administrative staff. Theodoros Pelegrinis, head of the University of Athens, said the government's so-called mobility scheme would leave the university unable to function, reports eNetEnglish.

Unions say that of 6,239 administrative staff at third-level institutions across the country, the government is seeking to place 1,765, or 25%, in its mobility scheme, which will end in dismissal if another job for them cannot be found in the public sector. In an interview on Skai TV, Pelegrinis said the university was facing its worst crisis in a decade.

According to the university's general director of administration, Panagiotis Fotopoulos, while the US has 9.5 administrators per 100 students and the UK 7.9, at the University of Athens the ratio is just two per 100.
Full report on the eNetEnglish site