Labour Minister Yiannis Vroutsis met Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis yesterday ahead of the negotiations with the representatives of Greece’s international lenders which are scheduled to start on Tuesday.

After the end of the meeting an official of the Ministry of Labour, who was asked on whether a legislative amendment for the settlement of social security funds in multiple installments would be soon tabled, said “there is no such issue at this moment” and added that “we are in no position to know whether the prime minister, based on what he said in Thessaloniki, will make such an intervention.”

The official appeared optimistic over the upcoming meeting between the Labour minister, the International Labour Organisation and the social partners regarding the mass layoffs and the changes to legislation for unions and said that the outcome should be positive.