Greece’s creditors 21-page directive for mass lay-offs and minimum wage cuts

Directive sets tone for harsh negotiations on labour laws

A 21-page paper handed to Greece by its creditors after the completion of the first review proposes a series of sweeping changes in the labour market. The creditors propose reforms in the minimum wages, worker’s salaries, lay-offs and strikes. The paper underlines that the minimum wages in Greece are still the highest among many EU countries and indirectly recommend the abolition or the decoupling of work experience from lower wages of unskilled labour. Apart from lowering the minimum wages, according to Greek newspaper ‘Eleftheros Typos’, the paper also calls for the scrapping of benefits paid in the form of 13th and 14th monthly wages, with the lenders pointing out that annual salaries should be limited to a one-off amount with no extra benefits from 2017 onwards. They also suggest the adoption of the EU directive for laying off 10% of the workforce from the current 5% in effect in Greece. The paper proposes more wage flexibility giving businesses the ability to determine lower wages to overcome the economic crisis, while it also recommends the scrapping of the union laws by abolishing trade unionist leaves and lifting the immunity of lay-offs. Furthermore, the proposals include the reinstatement of the right of employers to implement lockouts during strikes tom protect their facilities.