With the General Secretary of PEO, Sotiroula Charalambous, the Minister of Labor and Social Insurance, Kyriakos Kousios, started on Monday the one-on-one meetings with the social partners to determine the Automatic Price Index Adjustment (ATA).
In his statements in the context of the agreement reached at the ports, the Minister said that “I have started my meetings with the trade unions and the employers' organizations separately. Today I had the first meeting with the PEO. I am continuing with the other organizations and next week will be the joint meetings of the employer and trade union side”.
Mr. Kousios added that it is an attempt “to be able to find common recommendations, because it is known that the Minister of Labor does not have the catalytic authority to decide on the specific issue of ATA, it is purely a matter of agreement between the social partners”. The role of the Ministry of Labor is mediating, he noted, while emphasizing that it is based on the responsibility and seriousness of the social partners, “hoping that we will end up somewhere positive, without anyone being able to say whether or not we will have a positive outcome”.< /p>
He did not want to go into further details regarding today's meeting. “Allow me not to go into details until I have completed my contacts and before I have the joint meetings. You realize that what is said in private meetings cannot even be used and that is their purpose, to exchange views freely without strings attached those present from what is being said, so that I can see where the limits are and how to mediate”, he noted.
It is reminded that on Tuesday the Minister will meet with the SEC, on Wednesday with the PEO, while Thursday and Friday he will meet with OEB and KEBE respectively. Next week, as he said, he will start the joint meetings between the social partners, while he gave a timetable until Christmas for the dialogue on ATA to end either in a consensual agreement or in an impasse. All meetings will be held at the Ministry of Labour.
