Was there an age requirement or not, which was ignored in the case of 59-year-old B.S., who was accepted in June 2022 as the head of the Larisa station? These studies allow us to conclude that 48 years of age was desirable, but not a necessary condition for his return to the EfE. And the second civil servant, who, like B.S., returned to the organization under the mobility program (he is an administrative employee of the University of Thessaly), has reached the age of 49.

The issue arose following a statement by SYRIZA, and in particular Transparency chief Giannis Ragusis, who said the hiring of a 59-year-old employee was “clearly illegal.” And this is because, according to Mr. Ragusi, the specific position had an age limit of 48 years. “According to the details of the positions of the 1st cycle of mobility in 2022 and specifically to cover the position with the code 1645713805, D.E. The station chiefs, OSE, directly and in writing demanded candidates with an age limit of up to 48 years,” the head of the SYRIZA transparency department said in a statement.

From the sequence of documents he cites, the following follows: the decision to hire B.S. and eight more civil servants through mobility were published in the Government Gazette in June 2022. In the challenged newspaper, the position held by the 59-year-old has a special code, which is mentioned (164571…). Using the code, Mr. Ragusis searched the database, which contains detailed information about the positions of the 1st cycle of mobility in 2022.

Through a special search, it turned out that three parameters are mentioned in the job description: “Health”, “Work with a PC”, “age up to 48 years”. “If the law had been respected, this employee, who was much older, would not have been able to take the specific position of the head of the Larisa station and would not have been in charge of specific duties on the fateful night of February 28,” the report says. he concludes in his speech, Mr. Raguzis.

Minister of the Interior Makis Voridis publicly responded to the complaint, pointing out that there is no age limit for recruitment by transfer – mobility. More precisely, an age limit is desirable, but not required. “The so-called desirable qualifications are not legal conditions, but only the desired directions that the organization is looking for, which, however, obviously do not prevent it from making a choice, since they are not formal conditions for either recruitment or transfer and which are determined only by the existing institutional base,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a message-response.

ministerial decision

A government official with knowledge of the matter added that if the number of candidates exceeded the 18 stationmaster positions requested by OSE due to mobility, then the candidate’s age may also have been assessed in the selection process. Something that was not done in this particular case as only two civil servants were asked to be transferred as station chiefs to the organization. However, in its response, the Interior Ministry refers to a decree signed by the resigned Minister of Transport Kostas Karamanlis in May 2022, which states that “age restrictions do not apply to transferred employees.”

A specific ministerial decision was actually signed on May 30 and concerns the new internal regulations of the Hellenic Railways Organization. Article 33 states verbatim that “transfer is permitted if the recipient possesses the necessary substantive and formal qualifications for the post to which he is being transferred, in addition to age”. However, the ministerial decision was signed after 59-year-old Larisa’s transfer application was submitted by the head of the station.