Salary cuts in private sector to be officially discussed

The meeting between the president of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (HFE), Demetris Dascalopoulos and the premier Lucas Papademos earlier on Wednesday afternoon seems to have put an end to the “guerrilla” fighting on wage cuts in the private sector.

Daskalopoulos admitted that the issue of wages will be further discussed, pinpointing the fact that on his part, he will do everything in his power for minimum wages to remain intact. Mentioning the social partners, the HFE head commented on their positive attitude regarding the discussions they all had concerning labour issues.

Speaking of the present government, he said that everyone should show their trust and support to the Papademos government instead of trying to trip it up every step it takes. In case of a failure or a national disaster, he continued, “the Greek people will put the blame on today’s governmental ‘flatmates’".

For the record, Wednesday will be the day when the Greek PM will have meetings with all social partners, at a time when traders are discussing a salary freeze for 2012, whereas the official collective agreement clearly speaks of a 16% increase on the base pay.