Athens-troika: Provisions of the agreement on labour, drugs and milk

Losses for employees and insured - No change to collective layoffs for another 6 months - “Day’s milk” of two days and “fresh” for up to 11 days - OTC drugs only in pharmacies for another 3 months

The information regarding the agreement of Athens with the troika is released slowly but the Greek government seems to be satisfied.

"They got nothing on the lines of the government," a top official of the economic team said. He revealed, however, that the agreement provides for the deregulation of collective layoffs, that nothing will change by law right now, but after a trial policy period the International Labour Office (ILO) will have the final word.

If dysfunctions occur, the troika will reintroduce the issue in October, requiring collective layoffs be deregulated by law.

The agreement provides for lower wages as an incentive for hiring long-term unemployed, with a surcharge, due to the three-year bonus periods on the salary, reduced by 50%.

For the layoffs in the public sector, the same source said "there are no commitments for 2015." Regarding the shift in the progress of the negotiations he said, "this is the nature of negotiations. They placed many issues on the table, knowing they would have to back off in some of them."

Provisions for milk and OTCs

The draft law on market reforms under OECD is expected to be released next week.

According to a Development Ministry top official, the agreement on the important issues is as follows:

- there will be a new category for milk, which will be called “day’s milk” and will have a lifespan of two days on the shelf. Regarding low pasteurization milk Greece is in line with the EU data, which there will be milk that can use the word "fresh", depending on the pasteurization capabilities of the industry, i.e. up to 11 days

- non-prescription drugs (OTC) will continue to be sold exclusively in pharmacies for three months

Determining a particular profit margin (33%) for pharmacists will be eliminated, while the setting of the maximum value defined by EOF (National Organisation for Medicines) will remain.

The purpose of the regulation is to reduce prices through competition. The success of the measure will be reviewed after 3 months from the troika which has agreed that, if the prices are not lowered there will be a full deregulation, which includes the distribution network as well.

"The ownership status of pharmacies does not change, a non-pharmacist owner is not permitted, however, as there are 28 points in the OECD report on drugs and pharmacies, we change a lot of issues, such as the co-located pharmacies," a Development ministry official commented.

- as for books, there is a distinction between literary and non-literary. Non-literary books will not have a single price and literary ones will have one only in their first edition

- bread will be sold via a weighing scale

OECD did not raise an issue about oil and yogurt, the same official commented.

Finally, the NSRF money that will be distributed to the Greek economy this year will be 3 billion euros.