SEV approves reform plans
After taking a battering from unionists, the government yesterday received backing for its planned structural reforms from key industrialists, who said that the time had come for the country to push through changes needed to help solve some of its economic woes. «Society agrees it is bothered by high prices, the lack of investments and unemployment, while at the same time we react to every change which could lead us out of this dead end,» said Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, chairman of the Federation of Greek Industries (SEV). Among the structural changes the government has tried to push through is an overhaul of the banking sector’s pension system. On Tuesday, it proposed the creation of an auxiliary pension fund, which the state would not contribute to, but the plan met with more objection from the Federation of Bank Employees (OTOE), which today begins its eighth consecutive day of strike action. Bank pension reforms are related to broader reforms which everyone must proceed with, Kyriakopoulos added.
