Greek civil servants go on strike
Greek civil servants on a nationwide strike against planned job cuts gathered outside a court in Athens to show solidarity with cleaning staff laid off by the Finance Ministry last year, Press TV reports.
The civil servants gathered outside the court in Athens on Tuesday, where a final decision was due in the case of 595 female janitors who were illegally laid off by the Greek Finance Ministry in September 2013.
The laid off cleaning staff have so far been successful in winning the legal battle, yet the ministry refuses to rehire them despite a binding ruling in their favor issued in April this year.
“Our trial is being postponed until February 2015, yet we are very optimistic, because we have so far won our case against the Greek government, but beyond that our case represents Greek workers at large who also say enough is enough,” former janitor at the Finance Ministry Georgia Ouli told the Press TV correspondent in Athens.
Among the thousands of civil servants who have come to the cleaning ladies support are the ousted journalists of now defunct national broadcaster ERT.
“All our mobilizations have a common aim, to change the unjust situation in labor relations and to bring along sufficient political change against the financial and societal suffocation of the majority of Greek workers, the new government seems now more feasible than two years ago,” Irini Foteli, from state broadcaster ERT told the correspondent.
According to the cleaning ladies, getting back their former jobs is not their only concern and their success resides in their current representation of the Greek anti-austerity movement and being supported by Greek and European syndicators.
Greeks have lost about a third of their disposable income since the debt crisis erupted in 2009 and unemployment has soared, leaving more than one in four without a job.
The civil servants were initially on strike in protest of scheduled job cuts prescribed by the country’s European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders who have bailed out Greece with over 240 billion euros since 2010.
SRK/MHB/AS
