ATHENS: Greece’s labor minister says negotiators from the International Monetary Fund have adopted “extreme neoliberal” positions at the start of a new round of bailout talks in Athens, pressing to aggressively scale back union powers and employment rights.
George Katrougalos said Tuesday the government was opposed to easing collective dismissals from struggling businesses and wanted to restore collective wage bargaining agreements between unions and employers that were stopped under previous bailout agreements.
Bailout negotiators returned to Athens last week after lenders backed the payout of a loan instalment worth 2.8 billion euros ($3.1 billion). Payment was formally approved Tuesday by the Eurozone rescue mechanism.
