According to a letter from the Union of Military of the Attica Islands, data are revealed that raise huge questions about resignations and dismissals in 2023 in our Navy.
We are talking about 179 experienced and trained officers who left last year, at a time when the situation in the labour market is not good at all.
Announcement of the Federation
This is not the first time that our Federation has raised the problem of the large number of resignations and early retirements, which is particularly acute in the Navy and clearly affects the entire Special Forces [relevant (d)]. The Union of the Military of the Regional Unit of the Islands reiterates the issue in two documents, which we are sending you as attachments [relevant (f) and (g)].
The first one records the total number of resignations in the Navy for the year 2023, where the situation is beyond nightmarish: one hundred and seventy-nine (179) officers of all origins, ranks and years of service (i.e. a full frigate crew) chose to leave, in order to disengage from the toxic working environment of the Special Forces, since, apparently, they considered that this was the only realistic solution left to them.
Even more seriously, a large proportion of those who resigned are young people with, more or less, career futures. The fact that several of them deliberately chose to pay compensation to leave an hour early suggests that a particularly serious problem exists in the Navy which the leadership is constantly attempting to downplay or excuse and which we can unfortunately expect to extend to the entire Special Forces. At the same time, according to the data obtained from Transparency, the State has dismissed for health reasons fifty-six (56) members of the Navy, of which thirty (30) are Permanent Professional Soldiers, from the recent series of enlistments with change of status (to I3), while other officers were in fact discharged due to non-service requirements and despite the fact that the opinions of the Supreme Naval Medical Board provided for retention. All this raises many serious questions concerning the 'strength factor'.
At the same time, the Union of Islands brought to light two more, particularly worrying, statistics. The first is that 20% of those who resigned in 2014-23 were recorded in 2023, when in 2013 (the first full year of bloody pay cuts) 194 officers had applied for early retirement, the vast majority of whom were specialty officers who had rushed to vest 25-year rights.
In short, this year's number of resignations is numerically and qualitatively much worse than that of 2013.
The second is that, over the same decade, 700 of those who resigned are graduates of the Higher Military Educational Institution and the Naval Permanent Naval Officer School, a number that corresponds to almost 70% of the admissions to the Naval Academy and the Naval School for the same period, which is a very serious indication that the phenomenon of resignation/early retirement seems to be more pronounced among graduates of productive schools (including the period of attendance at these schools, in which resignations are not taken into account).
Compensation was implicitly abolished (such as for the performance of duty on public holidays, where it was paid).
- An axe was introduced on compensation for night work hours from 35 to 62% (at the same time the limit on compensable hours was increased in the SAs).
- Instead of introducing targeted allowances to support the severely depressed income of the military, the Fleet allowance was finally fragmented and reduced to a supposed increase in the allowance for special working conditions. In this way, equality in impoverishment was imposed since the anyway "little" was distributed to "many" and eventually everyone received from "nothing".
- Both the night work allowance and the 'supplement' to the allowance for special working conditions are now regarded as income and are de facto subject to an exhaustive income tax. Out of this, the military has seen its tax scale change in several cases (and especially those serving in the Fleet).
- At the same time, compensation for service remains at 1999 levels, at a time when the implementation of the much more unfavourable regime of Law 4336/2015 is pending (and indirectly announced).
- Even the alleged increases introduced by Law No. 5045/2023, we consider it certain that they will be returned to the multiple in an indirect way since they will cause a new change in the tax scales, which in turn will result in the loss of the last privileges (such as the inclusion in the Regional Development Partnership for nurseries). Recall that the military are excluded from most (if not all) of the poverty establishment subsidies (-pass type).
- Military personnel are excluded from any special beneficial measure (we recall the extraordinary financial aid of 600 € given to the Military Number Finders ). Moreover, in order to avoid any doubt as to whether it "just happened", we recall that the disposition to discriminate against members of the Special Forces was institutionally clarified even for students of military schools [relevant (c)].
- Ambiguities or difficulties in implementing existing provisions entail additional charges and financial burdens (e.g. in terms of health care)
- Added to all this is the State's consistent policy of paying staff accruals, ranging from late (various allowances for service, outstanding salaries) to none at all (refusal to recognise retroactivity, double insurance contributions, etc.).
The matter needs special investigation by the government and the Ministry of Defence, this is the only sure thing that needs to be done as soon as possible.
