An interesting review of the annual financial report of the Public Power Company (PPC) of Greece

Below is a summary of the 2012 annual financial data Greece's public sector controlled power company, which is also a monopoly in the country.

- Annual turnover : 5,985 billion € (+8,6%).
- EBITDA : 990,9 million € (+27,1%).
- Earnings : 30,5 million € (in 2011 loses of 148,9 million €).

However the most interesting data derive from the personnel and payroll related data:
- personnel as of 31-12-12 : 19.998 (31-12-11 : 20.821).
reduction: 3,96%.
- Payroll cost 31-12-12 : €1,071 billions! (31-12-11: €1,25 billions)
reduction: 14,3%.

Average annual pay per employee: €1,071 bln / 19.998 employees = 53.550 €!. 4.463 monthly salary! 

The energy monopoly in Greece which does NOT pay for the coal fuel it uses since it is controlled by the public sector had pathetic earnings of just 30.5 million €. So where does the money go? TO THE PAYROLL!
A reduction of only 10% in the employees' salary (4000 instead of 4463 per month!) would TRIPLE the earnings of the company!

Below is an interesting comparison with the power company of Portugal:
The Portuguese PPC has a capacity of 7000 ΜW and about 7.000 employees with an average monthly salary of 1.300 €. The annual payroll cost is : 110.000.000 €.

The Greek PPC has a capacity of 11.000 MW (57% more) 20.000 employees (286% more) with an AVERAGE monthly salary of 4.463 € (certainly there are much higher than the average salaries in the company). Annual payroll cost : 1.071.000.000 € (974% more).

One may ask himself, why PPC's employees enjoy such benefits and huge salaries when the Greek public sector supposedly is bankrupt and has no money to pay back its lenders?

The answer to that lies in the heart of the Greek problem. For Greece is not a democracy but rather a twisted, corrupt regime where all decisions are not taken with the country and common good in mind but rather to please specific categories of citizens. PPC was for decades a tool for politicians to provide money and a secure job to their favorite citizens (and parties) in return for political support, control of the company and votes. However after a while it became clear (at least to some) that the monster they created had a mind of its own. Many times in the past we were witnesses of how the PPC employees (that were posted there by politicians as a favor) resisted decisions of the government, threatened the country with total blackouts and extorted unbelievable benefits that helped bring the country to bankruptcy. In that way, the government appointed CEO of the PPC practically has no power over the PPC unions that control the company. So all of its income becomes salaries for its employees and we can understand how the graph above makes sense. PPC is hostage of its employee unions and the greek governments cannot but also have no wish to do anything about it for fear of losing votes!