SECONDARY school teachers (OELMEK) yesterday announced a one-day strike to protest against the austerity measures, and threatened to escalate industrial action, depending on developments.
OELMEK said the strike will take place on the day parliament discusses the second austerity package later this month.
“On the day of the strike there will be a protest outside the finance ministry and a march to parliament,” OELMEK said.
Meanwhile PEO accepted Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias’ proposal on CoLA, stressing it was the last concession workers in the broader state sector made.
The union also censured parties for criticising unions, even before they responded to the proposal.
The union said parties hurt labour relations and insist on scrapping institutional benefits like CoLA.
“They create the conditions for the effort to achieve consensus and effective implementation of the measures to fail,” PEO said.
On the other hand, SEK trade union deferred decision on the issue to Tuesday following disagreements by members belonging to semi-state organisations.
The executive committee had recommended approval of the proposal.
The heads of the union’s branches at telecommunications company CyTA and the electricity authority EAC said their members were not prepared to foot the bill of bad management of public finances.
The final decision will be taken by the union’s general council on Tuesday.
SEK representative Nicos Tampas said members’ reaction focused on the fact that CoLA was under discussion at a time when workers in the broader sector had already given a lot towards tackling the economic crisis.
Tampas urged those targeting workers in the sector to turn their fire elsewhere.
Kazamias’ proposal, which was heavily criticised by opposition parties DISY and DIKO, provides for a freeze in CoLA payments for the first half of 2012.
The minister has also pledged to open discussions on changing the CoLA system to make it fairer as high-income recipients currently benefit the most.
The government aims to cut public deficit to around 2.0 per cent in 2012 from close to 6.0 per cent this year.
For 2013 the government said it wants to have a zero deficit.
