An investigation is to be launched into a telemarketing company in Athens which allegedly threatened to fire its workers unless they sang the firm’s anthem before starting work every morning, the government said yesterday.

Labor Minister Panos Panayiotopoulos said that inspectors had already visited the company’s premises in the southern suburb of Moschato and gathered documents which they would be forwarding to a public prosecutor for further investigation.

The alleged company policy, which involved employees having to perform breathing and stretching exercises before work, was “unacceptable” and an “insult to the dignity” of workers, Panayiotopoulos said. A company employee informed the ministry of the alleged rituals. The firm’s owner denied the claims but the woman had filmed staff parading and singing the anthem on her cell phone.