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In order to reduce the cost of wages in the national Greek telecom OTE with 300 million Euros over the next four years, negotiations began with the management of the trade union in the telecom - OME. Within the framework of the debate on the signing of the collective agreement at company, the OTE president and chief executive director Michalis Tsamaz emphasized that cuts are necessary to enable OTE to get closer to the salary costs of similar companies in Europe, to become competitive and to ensure its survival. 

Wage costs in OTE are equal to 34 percent of its revenues, while the average cost for telecommunications companies in Europe is 22 percent. From the nine management proposals, placed on the table, the ones that stood out were the elimination of permanent positions, freezing of salaries, cancellation of allowances and the abolition of voluntary redundancy. The management invites unionists to examine the proposals in order for the collective agreement to be signed within two months. 

In particular, the areas touched upon by the management, which can lead to a reduction in wage costs include: 

1. Removal of permanent positions for employees recruited before 2005, constituting 75 percent of the telecom employees. 

2. Maintaining current levels of remuneration (zero increases and a freeze on service allowance of 2.2 percent). 

3. Cancellation of many allowances, introduced in the past (e.g. allowances for border areas, heating, specific conditions, etc.) and keeping only the allowances provided by law, and the reduction of working time with a corresponding reduction of wages and implementation of flexible working hours (e.g. part-time, job rotation). 

4. Create a new payroll table based on the weight of the job and employee productivity. So far, wages had no connection with productivity. 

5. Restriction of trade union leave up to the level provided in the labor law. 

6. Rationalization of sick leave (full-time OTE employees are entitled to a sick leave as long as their years of experience) and removal of special leave (e.g. to celebrate the name day). 

7. The cancellation of paying nine salaries, with the exception of lump-sum payment, for employees with 35 years of service, who leave the company upon request. 

8. Amending provisions for disciplinary control in order to make it less complex, rendering justice to be faster and penalties to meet the severity of the violations. 

9. Various forms of voluntary leave from the company. 

Meanwhile, the Greek state will transfer 10% of ΟΤΕ for a total of 391,630,153.62 euros or 7.99 euros per share (total of 49,015,038 shares), to Deutsche Telekom, according to the decision of the Inter-ministerial Commission for restructuring and privatization. 

The transfer will take place on the Athens Stock Exchange (under the form of a pack or packs) through the National Stock Company. Furthermore, it was decided to instruct the law firm "Kiriakidis Georgopoulos & Danyolos Isaiyas" the provision of legal advisory services in connection with the transaction, and UBS Limited will have to give an opinion as to whether the selling price of shares is reasonable and fair (fairness opinion ). 

After the transaction, the percentage held by the Germans in the Greek national telecom will reach 40 percent, while the Greek state will be limited to 10 percent, including the percentage owned by the Greek Social Security Institute in ΟΤΕ.