Retrospective: “We await the decision of the highest special court to see what will happen,” says Michailidou

The Minister of Labour and Social Security spoke to MEGA about his increase. Domna Michailidou referred to the increase in the minimum wage announced yesterday (29.3.2024) by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. In particular, it says that “an increase will not only be made by those working at the minimum wage, but also by those working at ISPA employment programmes, women receiving maternity benefits and working at the minimum but also over half a million of our fellow citizens working at the regular unemployment allowance. We are talking about over a million affected by raising the minimum wage. We also have our fellow citizens who are retired, civil servants who have been raised in wages and there are the other working private employees who have a multiplier footprint on their wages.” For the reduced purchasing power, ‘Europe’ prices and ‘Balkanian’ wages, the minister said that, “many efforts are being made. In the 22 countries that have a minimum wage, we are in the middle and we are starting from the sky and we are 11th. Compared to 2019 when we started this effort, the Greek has 3 more minimum wages in the pocket. Yet he feels both inflation and accuracy. We’re trying to control accuracy with fines and extraordinary reinforcements. We are trying to find a balance between the worker and the employer.” For the possibility of reducing insurance contributions, “we are trying to look at the contributions that we have budget limit and space. We’re studying the footprint of the special solidarity contribution to pensioners. We have already reduced the contributions by 4.4%. each unit of reduction in insurance contributions has a cost in the public sector of around half a billion euros. But it’s something we see. There’s nothing new about the Easter allowance, there’s nothing on the table right now. For pensioners and for the retrospectives of the period 2015 – 2016 but also a new possible increase in pensions Mrs. Michailidou stressed that, “the issue of retrospectives is an issue that we do not currently enter into a position. He’s in the highest special court. We’re waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision on the retrospectives to see what happens. We respect the decisions of justice. It is the issue of insurance contributions and we are also looking at what we can do and whether we can do for pensioners.”