Teaching is a function and this is also performed by university professors, whom the state currently pays very poorly, and when they retire, after even 40 years of service to the university, they are unable to live decently.
The above saying is attributed to Alexander the Great, who recognized that his father Philip gave him life, and his teacher Aristotle offered him education, the formation of his personality, as well as the knowledge and values of life that make it superior, that is, the good life.
Indeed, the great sage of antiquity dealt with the recognition that should be given to teachers for their contribution to society. In his Politics, he argued that the state should recognize those who contribute to the good life, emphasizing the connection of remuneration with the concept of social contribution and moral excellence.
Teaching is a function and this is also performed by university teachers, whom the state currently pays very meagerly, and when they retire, after even 40 years of service to the university, they are unable to live decently. A retired university professor can hardly remain, as he wishes and should, scientifically active under these conditions, with scientific information, research work, publication of studies, participation in conferences in Greece and abroad, and other necessary activities.
The cut in pensions during the period of the Memoranda, when the country was in danger of being destroyed, was justified, but the fixation of pensions at the low level of even 1.400 euros compared to even 4.500 euros before the Memoranda period, has no basis, especially given the stable and successful course of the Greek economy today.
For the above reasons, the Court of Auditors, as the competent Supreme Court, has ruled in its decisions that the continued cuts in pensions are contrary to the provisions of the Constitution. Already, professors who appealed to the Court have been vindicated for the retroactive payment of their pensions, and are in the first stage of collecting the corresponding amounts.
It is worth noting that university graduates are included in a specific category of state employees (special payrolls) to which the armed forces and security forces, judicial officers and diplomatic officials also belong. A law was recently passed based on which the salaries, lump sums and pensions of those belonging to the armed forces in a broad sense were significantly increased, and even retroactively. The improvement in the pensions of this category of employees is undoubtedly fair. The same applies to judicial officers, who have from time to time achieved increases in their pensions. The question, however, that arises is "why so much injustice"? How is discrimination justified between professional groups that belong to the same category of special payrolls? It is, moreover, provocative that society considers that university students are paid handsomely, due to the category of "special salaries", which, in my humble opinion, in this case should be called "special needs salaries"!
I hope that there will finally be the political will to restore the salaries of university professors in general, and above all appeals to the Court. Let retired university professors not follow Voltaire's saying "we will leave this world exactly as we found it: stupid, unjust and evil".
Published in VIMA
photo WOKANDAPIX, https://pixabay.com
