Greek PM: 10,000 new hirings in 2019

Greece will be hiring 10,000 new civil servants in 2019, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Thursday in the wake of the announcement Tuesday of a tentative deal with the Church of Greece.

Under the deal, which aims to change the way clerics are paid and resolve a long-standing property dispute, some 10,000 clerics will be moved off the state payroll. Speaking on Wednesday, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said the move will "free up" space for another 10,000 public hirings.

Speaking on Alpha TV Thursday, Tsipras said that the government will secure that there is one hiring for every departure in the public sector.

"In 2019, we will have 8000 departures and an equal number of hirings through the Supreme Council for Civil Personnel Selection (ASEP), plus an additional 7,500 hirings for which we have the funding," he said.

Also in 2019,...