Finance Ministry cleaning ladies ready to 'return to work on Monday'

Some 400 Finance Ministry cleaners who were placed in a labor pool eight months ago said on Friday that they will return to work on Monday after an Athens court upheld their appeal against the decision.

The ruling comes as the period of assessment after which it will be decided whether they will be let go or rehired is about to expire.

Of the 465 cleaning ladies put into the labor pool in September, 397 filed an appeal against the decision. Dozens of them, who have been holding regular protest rallies since, have also spent the last few days camped out outside the ministry in central Athens.

“This landmark decision... eliminates the entire institution of labor mobility and proves it utterly unconstitutional,” the women’s lawyer, Yiannis Karouzakis, said.

It was not clear, however, whether the court’s decision means that the cleaners will have to be rehired effective immediately.