Greece’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, has ruled that cuts to civil servants’ lump sum pension payments – a bonus usually paid upon retirement – were legal.
The decreases were part of spending cuts to meet memorandum-mandated goals of previous years.
A relevant decision was published on Friday, with the ruling signed by a majority of justices.
Attorneys for defendants, mostly state-employed workers, had claimed that the cuts were unconstitutional and against European treaties on human rights.
The primary argument cited by the majority held that cuts in primary and supplementary pension were part of a “wider program to restore the country’s fiscal balance … and to reform the social insurance system, with a goal being its viability”.
