Prison guards protest conditions, demand structural reform
Prison guards have decided to stage a series of protests over their working conditions and the creation of maximum-security prisons.
The guards will stage work stoppages on Tuesday and Thursday next week while they will hold 24-hour strikes on Wednesday and Friday.
This will lead to all prison visits and inmate transfers being canceled.
The guards are demanding that the government lives up to a pledge to hire an extra 500 prison staff and to pay them a bonus for “hazardous and unhealthy” work.
The union representing prison officers (OSYE) also slammed a recently introduced law for the creation of maximum-security prisons, claiming that this would not solve the serious problems in Greek jails.
The union said that only a deep structural reform of Greece’s prison system would suffice.