HUNDREDS of local government workers entered a Finance Ministry building in Athens on Thursday demanding that there will be no cut to their dangerous and unhealthy occupation allowance.
They occupied the office of the Deputy Finance Minister, Stratis Pitsiorlas, until he promised that there will be no reduction of the allowance in the next 12 months.
The EU and IMF creditors have ordered a 33 per cent cut.
The local government workers also demanded the termination of the process of privatisation of services.
The 24-hour national strike was organised by the POE-OTA Federation of local government workers.
Yiorghos Kharisis, a member of the POE-OTA Executive, said that workers should not trust the government’s ministers.
The POE-OTA President said that if there is a cut on the allowance, local government workers would not participate in the process of the coming elections.
On Thursday, the OAED (Organisation for the Employment of Labour Force) announced a 2.3 per cent rise in unemployment for last January compared to December 2018. Only 20 per cent of the unemployed receive some kind of unemployment benefit.
The Greek Government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced another wave of privatisations of Greek ports, marinas, large portions of the state electricity grid, natural gas and water enterprises. There was no reaction at all from the GSEE (Greek TUC).