Labour Ministry to Troika: We will not raise new issues

"We will not accept you raising new issues in labor relations," the ministry of labor told the Troika technical teams, noting that first they must complete the implementation of recent changes and assess their effects on the labor market.

Commenting on the Troika e-mail, including various issues and propositions for the labor market, the Finance ministry states that it will evaluate proposals always based on the interests of workers and on reinforcing healthy entrepreneurship. In other words, they are saying that it is not necessary to raise new issues such as reduced compensations and minimum wages before the market has "digested" the recent changes.

The text includes issues (e.g. reducing employer contributions, electronification of transactions with SEPE, reduction of administrative costs that burden entrepreneurship etc.) that are already in the implementation phase to help toward the increase of employment and the better functioning of the labor market.

Ministry sources did not deny that last Friday theTroika sent an e-mail to the ministers of Finance and Labor, in which it set as a priority for discussion the issue of reducing the minimum wage and severance pay in the private sector and the release of working hours to be formed freely beyond the eight hours or five working days, based on the needs of the business and without it paying any overtime.

They said, however, that the Troika representatives had voiced similar positions in previous audits and that there is a preliminary discussion on the general framework of the meetings that will be held.

It should be noted that similar proposals and requests have been expressed in the past by a part of Greek employers' representatives. The Troika has listened to these calls and since 2010 - under Loverdos’ law - has reduced the warning time required before layoff, in which the employer may dismiss the employee, cutting his compensation in half.