NEWS

Troika's ultimatum and the government's retreat

Troika's ultimatum and the government's retreat

By Andreas Petropoulos

The government was led in disorderly retreat after the Troika's ultimatum for the immediate agreement to labor and Insurance issues.

The representatives of creditors, in yesterday's conference call with representatives of the Ministry of Labour, they reiterated their demands, ie to proceed now with the so called structural changes which are relating to the trade union law, the "lockout" and the Insurance.

The changes and requirements of the troika found earlier, at noon, at the heart of his meeting of the Prime Minister Ant.Samaras with the Minister of Labor Mr. G. Vroutsis and the General Secretary, Anna Stratinaki, who is saddled with the editorial context of changes in employment. Late in the afternoon, the Minister of Labor was again in Maximou, to update for a second time the Prime Minister on the progress of the negotiations which seem to take dramatic form, forcing the government to accept "the whole package".

According to information the Troika calls to proceed immediately to:

A) The change of trade union law, to cut union rights (leave), review of the funding of trade unions and especially change of the N.1264 / 1982, regarding the notice of strikes, demanding increase of warning time (from 24 to 48 hours) and increased majority of 50% + 1 for a decision.

B) Change the status on collective redundancies, considering the temporary solution of approval of redundancies through ASE (Higher Labor Council) non-sufficient and they require law that expedites the procedure without bureaucratic interference.

C) Reintroduction of the employer's "lockout", the measure of the lockout, which gives to employers the right to close their businesses when the strikes are lasting. This was prescribed by the law of Laskaris (Minister of Labor of Constantine Karamanlis) but abolished by the N.1264 / 1982.

For the last issue, the Minister of Labor says that can be resolved with the legislation for faster litigation of the cases which indirectly related to lockout, such as Article 656 of the Civil Code.

D) Accelerating of the "reform" of Insurance in order to reduce even more the pension costs in the next two years. Lenders require explicit commitments now, for administrative consolidations (all funds will be merged with IKA), but mainly the intervention to the subsidiary pensions, the introduction of 20 years for the administration of the minimum pension while repealing the welfare arm, as from 1.1 .2015 is the establishment of the minimum pension in 360 Euros.