Greek Labour Minister George Katrougalos made it clear that the Greek government would not accept mass redundancies, despite the pressure put on it by the IMF. ‘The IMF demanded massive redundancies’, said the Minister in an interview to Skai TV. He pointed out the government has defended its ‘red lines’ in the negotiations with the country’s creditors, citing the fact that no main pension had been cut. Katrougalos added that there was no demand on slashing wages on the negotiation table at this stage. Commenting on the ‘automatic cut’ in pensions he said it would be announced every April 30 and would last for 3 years. Despite sweeping increases in taxes, direct and indirect, cuts in ancillary pensions and lump sum dividends, a partial reduction in EKAS, Katrougalos appeared optimistic that ‘better days’ were in store for the future. ‘The austerity program imposed on the Greek public was wrong’, he underlined, adding that the Greek government has miscalculated that the ‘No’ of the Greek people in last year’s referendum would have been taken into consideration by the rest of Europe. Katrougalos stressed that part of the losses incurred by pensioners by the cutting of the Special Solidarity Pension Benefit (EKAS) would be compensated in 2018.