By Stelios Papapetros
The level of recoupment for primary retirement benefits, cuts in supplementary pensions and the level of increased social security contributions by wage earners and their employers are, as expected, the three “axes” on which looming social insurance reforms in recession-plagued Greece will revolve.
According to reports, talks between the Greek side and representatives of institutional creditors, the so-called “quartet”, are near completion, with the relevant ministry having already dispatched detailed data for Greece’s social security system. Ministry sources said they are confident that the latest clarifications requested by creditors have been met.
The target now is to conclude talks by the mid-April, given that an April 22 deadline has been previously cited by the leftist Greek government to achieve the first review of the Greek program.
Beyond pension system reforms, talks on labor sector reforms are also expected to commence, with an “experts committee” to convene on April 6. Issues on the agenda include allowing mass layoffs, the legal status of a “lock out”, the labor unions' legal framework, as well as the manner in which industrial actions are declared. A more flexible labor market in Greece is also cited as a goal.
Members of the “experts committee” were identified as Jan Van Ours, Gerhard Bosch, Bruno Veneziani, Fernandes Monteiro, Wolfgang Daubler, Ioannis Koukiadis, Juan Silva and Petro Martins, all with academic and legal backgrounds.
