On the heels of today's dreadful, and very un-hockey-stick-like recovery, data on the Greek economy, it appears the government has found a solution to the various problems of joblessness and poor education. As KeepTalkingGreece reports, the Greek Education Ministry seek fill 1,100 job vacancies with teachers who will gladly and proudly work on "voluntary basis." As far as we remember, working for nothing is, err, slavery; but that's not it at all... as Education Minister Andreas Loverdos, the slave teachers will be rewarded with "bonus points" that will help them improve their hiring options in the future. Ironic that this should be happening as fast-food workers in America demand a higher minimum wage (maybe unemployed Greek teachers would be willing to flip burgers for money rather than teach young greeks for nothing).

Via KeepTalkingGreece,

Greek Education Ministry seek fill 1,100 job vacancies with teachers who would be gladly and proudly work on “voluntary basis”, that is without payment! According to daily TA NEA, Education Minister Andreas Loverdos considers to seek teachers who would work on voluntary basis in order to fill up vacancies in schools with teachers’ shortage. The volunteers will be rewarded with “bonus points” that will help them improve their hiring options, should these be possible on day in the near or -most likely – far future. As the loan agreement with the Troika ‘freezes’ replacement of retired personnel, the shortage of teachers in schools is impossible to be overcome. “I cannot achieve the goal of hiring 1,100 teachers because I have no funds,” Minister Loverdos told TA NEA (via zougla.gr) If the state ‘hires’ personnel on volunteer basis, you can imagine what happens in the private sector of the crisis- and recession-hit country. I am not sure whether Minister Loverdos, a neo-liberal from “socialist” PASOK, seeks to create an example for new neoliberal labor conditions, but certainly this is the “LOL of the Day”! +++++++ BTW Education Minister Andreas Loverdos recently ordered an internal inquiry to find who was responsible that he did not attend the National Day religious mass on October 28th 2014. A week later, he officially admitted, it was the fault of his office, therefore “his own fault.” He promised to attend TWO religious masses on next national day, on March 25th. PS I suppose, Samaras’ success story, primary surplus and successful return to markets has not reached the Education Ministry yet.

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Sadly this should not be a surprise since 10 months ago a high level research paper for the EU commission appeared to suggest 'slavery' as an option...

Centre of planning and Economic Research in Greece has proposed a controversial measure in order to deal with the problem of increasing unemployment in the country. The measure includes unpaid work for the young and unemployed up to 24 years old, so that companies would have a strong motive to hire young employees. Practically, what is proposed is the abolition of the basic salary for a year. At the same time the “export” of young unemployed persons was also proposed to other countries abroad, as Greek businesses do not appear able to hire new personnel. According to the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce, unemployment especially hits the ages between 15-24. The unemployment rate in Greece stands at 24.6% while 57.2% of young people are without a job. The majority of the unemployed (71%) have had no work for 12 months or more, while 23.3 % of the total have never worked. There were 3,635,905 people employed and 1,345,387 unemployed.

Whether it’s Europe in the 1930’s or the US during the same period (conflicts between strikers, the National Guard and armed militias), unemployment can create a powerful cocktail of unrest.

But turning your nation's young into slaves does not seem like a good solution to us...