The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has condemned the use of civil mobilisation legislation by the Greek authorities to break industrial action by workers fighting to maintain a collectively agreed public sector wages scheme.Â
The legislation, which has scarcely ever been invoked since the collapse of Greece’s military dictatorship in 1974 and can lead to terms of imprisonment of up to five years, has now been used against striking metro workers in Athens.
Bernadette Ségol, ETUC General Secretary said: “The wheeling out of emergency powers to enforce austerity policies is unacceptable.  Just yesterday, in an ETUC special anniversary conference panel including Greek trade union President Yannis Panagopoulos, Commissioner Rehn spoke of our “cherished” social model and of the benefits of social dialogue. We call on him to tell the Greek government that their action is exactly the wrong way to get out of the crisis”.
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