Galery

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The unrest connected with the controversial labour law in Greece is continuing this week as unions and employees in public sector started new protests. First, employees in municipalities and regional centers for local government announced a one-hour symbolic blockade of all town halls in the country in the middle of the week. Then the employees of the Hellenic Federation of Social Policy engaged in the formation and payment of pension supplements for specific professions in the private and public sectors followed them. The employees of the two biggest Greek airlines Olympic Air and Edzhian announced four-hour protest from 11 am to 15 pm on Thursday, July15, suspending all flights of both companies at that time. Police, firefighters and port workers also expressed their indignation at the reform of the social security and pension system and gathered to protest in front of the  parliament.

The general discontent is against the high retirement age, according to which men and women will be entitled to pensions at the age of 60 and employment continuity of 40 years or at the age of 65. The cut of the 13^th and 14^th salary and the reduction of civil servants monthly pays cause additional fret and discontent. The additional deductions for Lafka savings bank are not accepted by society either, because they reduce the total monthly salary.

The Confederation of Public Servants (ADEDY) announced that a new organized protest against government reforms will be held on Thursday, July 15. Public institutions such as tax offices, post offices, municipalities, town halls and ministries will work until 11 am, and then will be closed to the public. The union invites all who are unsatisfied with the government to join the strike at 12 o’clock on Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament in the capital.

At the same time the government introduced several changes in the pension rights of civil servants, which, unfortunately, did not conciliate the unions. As a sign of goodwill the government has decided to reduce the retirement age for women working in local government organizations by two years. The proposal is the initial retirement age of 60 to fall to 58 years. Parents of disabled children will retire at the age of 50 instead of 55 and five years notional service (education, military service, etc) will be accounted for the employed in the police and the army.