Driving instructors protest, causing traffic jams in Athens

Athens motorists are in for a headache on Tuesday as driving instructors hold a motorcade from the Transport Ministry in the northern suburbs to the city center.

Dozens of driving instructors gathered outside the ministry in the suburb of Holargos early on Tuesday morning and are driving south to Parliament on Syntagma Square, causing delays on Mesogeion, Kifissias and Vassilissis Sofias avenues.

Instructors are taking issue with a protest by examiners who have suspended testing over a row with the ministry regarding their pay, resulting in a backlog of 22,000 to 23,000 students waiting to take their exams in Attica alone.

Instructors have also issued a list of 13 demands, including insurance against accidents caused by students when they are alone in the vehicle, a body of examiners that will have no other task but that and set times for examinations.