Labor inspectors to vet military?
Following last week’s accident at a border army outpost, in which five conscripts were electrocuted while raising a flagpole, the government is weighing the option of calling in labor inspectors to vet all military installations, a report said yesterday. Sources quoted by the Athens News Agency said the ministers of labor and defense are planning to issue a joint decision allowing Labor Ministry inspectors, who usually deal with safety measures at industrial sites, unprecedented access to military units all over the country. On the basis of their reports, safety will be upgraded, while small units – such as the Evros outpost where the five conscripts died on Thursday – will be relocated if necessary. Following a visit to the outpost at Kornipigi, near Soufli in Thrace, Defense Minister Spilios Spiliotopoulos likened the installations to a boy scout camp and ordered the closure of the unit. The five young men died when the metal flagpole got caught in an overhead power line. An inquest is under way into the accident.
