ND pushes utility reform
The government appeared determined yesterday to push through a reform that will effectively see the abolition of collective contracts for employees at state companies and utilities (DEKO), despite opposition from unionists, including those affiliated with the ruling New Democracy party. Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis discussed the reform with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis yesterday and emerged to tell journalists that the government would be pressing ahead with the controversial amendment. «In recent years, we have had widening deficits and increasing costs at DEKO, which have not taken into account the wider social and economic consequences,» said Alogoskoufis. «What the amendment does is again allow the state to play a role in these matters because, ultimately, it is the taxpayer that is forced to foot the bill for larger deficits and increased costs.» «It is not logical in a period when everyone in the economy is showing self-restraint, for some DEKO to allow their deficits to grow at the expense of the taxpayer,» added the minister, who wants to see wage hikes at loss-making DEKO strictly curtailed. The proposal has not gone down well with unions and workers on the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway, who said that they would stage a four-hour work stoppage from 5 a.m. tomorrow with possible further action to be announced. The head of the New Democracy-affiliated union DAKE, Costas Poupakis, called on Alogoskoufis to withdraw the amendment. Outspoken conservative MP Yiannis Manolis also criticized the move, saying that it suggested the minister had no confidence in the directors he had appointed at the state enterprises. Alogoskoufis also found himself under fire for suggesting that New Democracy could cooperate with PASOK if neither party wins a clear majority at the next general election, which is not due for just over three years. Party secretary Lefteris Zagoritis said that the view was solely that of Alogoskoufis and that New Democracy would seek to win enough votes to form a government on its own at the next poll. Other MPs suggested the minister’s view pointed to a «defeatist mentality.» Alogoskoufis insisted that people were trying to twist his words.
