OTE must help allay cost of pension scheme, gov’t says
Labor Minister Andreas Loverdos stated yesterday that OTE telecom would have to pay over 100 million euros in order to contribute to covering the costs of a voluntary retirement scheme in 2005. «The government is not clashing with OTE. It wants to discuss, on the correct basis, the serious consequences of what occurred in 2005 that it now has to handle,» said Loverdos, adding that «a few years on, we have to manage the very serious outstanding amount from that regulation. The scheme was very one-sided on the part of OTE at the time,» he stated. The scheme, worth 1 billion euros, has caused serious problems for the Social Security Foundation (IKA) that must bear its costs, so the government is now suggesting that OTE share some of the burden. The telecoms giant had not responded to the minister’s statement by yesterday.
