Gov’t pledges help for jobless
The government will adopt measures to alleviate some of the effects of unemployment, Labor and Social Security Minister Savvas Tsitouridis said yesterday. The statement came at a press briefing during a response to a question about whether the government would agree to an early retirement scheme for the employees of Olympic Airlines, who will be laid off when the carrier will likely be shut down later this year. On Wednesday, it was announced that unemployed workers in the ailing textile industry in Naoussa, Macedonia, and other sectors that are more than 50 years old will be given early pensions on the condition they have worked 25 years. Tsitouridis declined to respond to a recent call by former PASOK minister Alekos Papadopoulos that no one should retire before the age of 60. He said the public dialogue on reforming the country’s social insurance system will begin in Parliament in the next few days, probably in the Economic and Social Affairs Committee. Invitations will be sent to all social agencies involved, mainly employer organizations and labor unions, to name their representatives to the committee that will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the pension system. Strictly legal Responding to other issues, Tsitouridis reiterated that the government will stick to the strict application of the recent law, which sets a 3 percent ceiling on pay raises in public utilities this year. «The times when laws were enacted but not implemented have passed… It is not possible that in the loss-making public utilities pay raises will be higher than those in the rest of the public sector,» he said. He did not rule out that the utilities will be given an informal short extension of the April 30 deadline to reach agreement with unions on pay raises within the prescribed 3 percent limit. Failing this, the government has said the ceiling will be mandatory. The press briefing was on the occasion of World Safety and Hygiene at Work Day today. Tsitouridis said the number of fatal labor accidents in Greece fell for the second year in a row to 111 last year, from 127 in 2004 and 145 in 2003. The total number of reported accidents at work also fell to 6,043 from 6,333 in 2004 and 6,329 in 2003. The construction sector had the worst accident record. Tsitouridis said the Labor Inspection Board carried out about 30,000 checks last year and imposed penalties in 7,551 cases. It also intervened in 16,378 labor dispute cases. According to data compiled by the International Labor Organization, 1.1 million workers lose their lives at work annually worldwide – some 3,000 per day.
