An Athens court on Monday evening ruled illegal the labor mobilisations announced by various unions in Athens' fixed-rail public transport system - the ISAP electric railway, tram and Athens Metro. The transport workers are objecting government plans to bring the salaries of all workers at public enterprises, or DEKOs, in line with a new across-the-board pay structure for civil servants.
Following the court's decision, the board of STASY S.A. called on all employees to respect legality, take into account the inconvenience experienced by commuters, as well as the repercussions on the city's economic life, and return to their work. On their part, Athens metro employees said that they will continue their action.
The strike is also highly criticised for another reason. A few several thousand workers who -according to the unionists- are striking, either claim they are sick, taking a day off, etc., and not that they are striking so that they can receive full pay. (This is very common in Greece's public sector.) When Nikos Evangelatos from SKAI channel asked one of the unionists on Monday night to explain why workers are claiming that they are taking a day off and/or are sick when in fact they were striking, the unionists of course refused to comment. In other words, the unions want to strike.. and get paid for it at the same time!
Our opinion - Fire all of them. Taxpayers are not obligated to pay workers when they are not productive and they are certainly not obligated to pay workers when they are on strike!
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