Tasos Petropoulos

SYRIZA government gave large retirement bonuses to certain categories of retirees

The previous SYRIZA government did not only take care to issue huge "golden" pensions to certain categories of retirees.

It had also made sure to issue higher retirement bonuses than what was provided in SYRIZA's own insurance reform law of 2016 to certain categories of pensioners insured by TSMEDE, the engineers' insurance fund.

Labor Ministry has failed to publish key details concerning pensions

Pensioners remain in the dark about the recalculation of their pensions according to the 2016 law, as they have not yet been notified by the Labor and Social Security Ministry about their so-called personal difference - i.e. the part of their pension that is likely to be cut.

Country at a standstill

The timing of Tuesday's disagreement between Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Deputy Labor Minister Tasos Petropoulos over whether the leftist government plans to pay a one-off benefit to public sector workers and pensioners in the form of an Easter bonus was not incidental.

Debt payment plans put on ice

The government appears to be shelving its plans for the restructuring of debts to the tax authorities and social security funds, according to the European Commission's report on Wednesday, even though officials in Athens had consistently said over the last few weeks that the clauses related to those plans would be voted immediately and start applying within March.

Subsidy for part of salary increase for under-25s

The Labor Ministry will cover a quarter of the total increase in salary costs of corporations from the abolition of the subminimum salary for the under-25s.

The subsidy will concern 50 percent of the employers' social security contributions toward the main pension of each worker up to 25 years old who until recently received 510.95 euros per month.

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