The seven member EU-IMF Troika mission currently in Greece held a meeting with labour ministry officials on Saturday, after which they decided to extend a deadline for completing talks until the end of the week, so that final decisions might be made concerning collective labour agreements and supplementary pensions.
Sources said the three-hour meeting was held in a pleasant climate, with the Troika clarifying that the next meeting on Thursday or Friday was not a deadline for the social partners (employer and trade union organisations) to finalise a collective agreement.
Nonetheless, the deadlines are getting tighter because all issues considered to be preconditions for signing a new loan contract must be settled within the week.
The issues raised by the Troika mission once again included a reduction in the minimum wage and the reduction of the 13th and 14th salaries in the private sector, stressing that a reduction in labour costs was a condition for boosting competitiveness.
The ministry countered that any horizontal reduction in wages would further deepen the depression and the living standards of wage-earners, whose incomes had sustained average reductions of around 12 percent since 2009. They pointed to alternatives for reducing labour costs and cited a recent report by the labour inspectors showing an increase in company contracts and forms of flexible employment.
Ministry officials also presented a plan to give employers a 10 percent discount in social insurance contributions if they paid wages and contributions via banks, and were prompt in paying contributions.
(source: ana-mpa)
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