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After drama, strikes, protests and arson in Greece the final vote of the new law, which regulates labor relations in the country, has been passed. It was a roll call vote and 159 MPs supported the law and 137 voted against it. The whole procedure took about an hour and a half and 296 MPs took part in the vote as a general. The opposition party New Democracy and the extreme right LAOS supported Article 17 which shortens the list of hard jobs and Article 43 which regulates the issues relating to conditions in the construction sector. The representatives of the right-wing voted down all other articles. Political analysts said it was expected New Democracy to support the labor law reform more, but overall, the vote has passed with no surprises.

Disaffiliated representatives of the right-wing Dora Bakoyannis and Costas Kiltidis also supported many of the changes of the socialist government, while the former MP of PASOK Sofia Sakorafa voted against the entire law article by article. Extreme left of the Greek Communist Party and the left radicals of SIRIZA voted against the entire law, while their supporters were shouting and protesting against the labor law reform and the changes in the pension system in front of the Parliament.

The biggest changes in labor law are related to the elongation of the length of service with regularly paid retirement benefits, which for men becomes 40 years. The other change concerns women working in the public sector, who until yesterday were able to retire after 45 years of age, depending on the length of their service. The women affected by this change are 140,000 government office workers and from today they become as all the other secured and will have to work another 15 years before retire.

The new law cuts the epic 13th and 14th salaries, which were given at Easter, Christmas and before summer annual leave. Their value for pensioners was reduced to € 200 for Easter and August and to € 400 bonus at Christmas under the new law. This applies to pensions to two  thousand euros. Pensioners who receive a total of over this amount are not entitled to additional 13th and 14th pension. State officials say goodbye to the 13th and 14th salary, and the employees in the private sector are still negotiating with employers to retain that benefit.

Another controversial decision which the government of George Papandreou took was related to the increase of the level of redundancy from 2% to 5% for companies with more than 150 employees. The Prime Minister George Papandreou personally guaranteed by the rostrum of the parliament that at the moment “the country stands on its feet there will be improvement in the amount of pensions and allowances.”

Parliament Speaker Christos Papoutsis announced the proposal of the parliamentary group of PASOK for formation of a control commission to observe the correct application of the changes included in the new labor law and pension reform. New Democracy supported the decision.