GREECE: Civil servants at Greek finance ministry stage anti-austerity strike

Record ID: 339228

  • Title: GREECE: Civil servants at Greek finance ministry stage anti-austerity strike
  • Date: 18th February 2010
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (FEBRUARY 17, 2010) (REUTERS) EMPLOYEES WITH BANNER READING "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! CIVIL SERVANTS DID NOT CREATE THE CRISIS" MARCHING IN ATHENS HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYEES WITH THEIR UNION HATS MARCHING AND SHOUTING THRONG OF EMPLOYEES FILLING ATHENS STREET AS THEY MARCH VARIOUS OF HUNDREDS OF EMPLOYEES MARCHING EMPLOYEES MARCHING WITH OTHER BANNER READING "STRI
  • Embargoed: 5th March 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Economic News,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5NTUFX5HM3MRKCVST5PLYRQEA
  • Story Text: Finance ministry employees, including accountants and national statistics service staff, protested outside their own ministry on Wednesday (February 17) in a four-day-strike against wage freezes and allowance cuts.
    As part of the government's economic austerity program supplemental wages will be cut, and there will be a wage and hiring freeze this year, for public servants. The government is trying to reduce waste in the public sector as well as reduce a bloated civil service workforce.
    About three hundred protesters carrying a banner reading "Enough is enough! Civil Servants Did Not Create The Crisis", stood outside the ministry calling on the finance minister to appear and shouting slogans.
    Supplemental wages - extra allowances above the main wage - make up a large part of civil servants income.
    "Economic measures may be needed, but not those that reduce wages in the middle of a recession, which needs to be supported with the circulation of money, and the reduction of incomes will have the opposite effect and create a reduction of people's buying power," said their union representative George Samaris.
    The employees began their strike on Tuesday along with customs officials on a three day strike also to protest against cuts in supplemental incomes, but tax officials cancelled their planned strike.
    Civil and public servants unions are also set to strike next week over the measures, but the strikes and protests have not drawn wide public support, who according to opinion polls, are backing the government and its economic plan.
    Weekend opinion polls showed Greeks support the government's handling of the economy, a positive sign for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, whose party enjoys a wide lead in the polls, as widespread public discontent would hinder the government from implementing its measures.
    Pollsters ALCO for the newspaper Proto Thema showed that 60 percent of Greeks believe the economic measures are in the right direction while 65 percent believe measures are fair and necessary.
    In a gallop by pollsters Public Issue for the newspaper Kathimerini, Papandreou's governing socialist PASOK party has a wide lead over the opposition, at a 48 percent approval rating compared to 31 percent for the convervative opposition New Democracy party.
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