Labor Ministry

The union of Greece's public hospital workers, POEDIN, on Tuesday called a 24-hour strike for Thursday in protest at the looming loss of dozens of patient transporters.

POEDIN is reacting to a government decision outlined in an Interior Ministry draft bill to transfer to local authorities 526 former school guards who had been assigned to help at understaffed public hospitals.

The government is seeking to limit the damage from a stern report issued last week by Greece's international creditors over its lagging reform program.

The number of people registered as unemployed at the Manpower Organization (OAED) rose considerably in January, the month when the increase in the minimum wage was announced.

The Labor Ministry will cover a quarter of the total increase in salary costs of corporations from the abolition of the subminimum salary for the under-25s.

The subsidy will concern 50 percent of the employers' social security contributions toward the main pension of each worker up to 25 years old who until recently received 510.95 euros per month.

The signing of the joint decision by the ministries of Labor and Finance to launch a rental subsidy scheme for 300,000 families as part of the housing program is now just a matter of days.

The e-Government Center for Social Security (IDIKA) is already running the final tests before it opens the online platform and starts accepting applications.

A harsh social security reform with cuts to rights and handouts is slowly being planned at the Labor Ministry, with the drafting of the new Single Regulation for Social Security and Benefits of the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA).

As the general election looms, the government is giving tax and social security contribution debtors another chance to have their arrears restructured.

The plan that the Labor Ministry is preparing for the settlement of social security dues in 120 installments will concern arrears created between 2002 and 2016, which in some cases will be recalculated, leading to the reduction of total dues by 60-70 percent.

Almost a third of retirees in Greece collect a monthly pension of no more than 500 euros, while the average income from main pensions in August and September 2018 came to 724.18 euros/month, according to data from the Labor Ministry's Helios database.

The same data show that auxiliary pensions averaged at 172.32 euros/month and dividends reached a mean rate of 97.84 euros/month.

The heads of the creditors' mission to Athens have, according to sources, expressed concern about the abolition of the subminimum wage during their meetings with political party representatives.