Greek pensioners participate in a symbolic protest in Athens, Greece, on Oct. 6, 2017. Greek pensioners held the symbolic protest outside Greece's supreme administrative court, the State Council, on Friday against the planned new round of cuts to their income under the third Greek bailout program. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)
ATHENS, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Greek pensioners held a symbolic protest outside Greece's supreme administrative court, the State Council, on Friday against the planned new round of cuts to their income under the third Greek bailout program.
Although the program ends in mid-2018, the latest pension system reform the government passed through the parliament in 2016 under the pressure of international creditors foresees more pension cuts from 2019.
Pensioners' unions along the umbrella union of civil servants ADEDY, the Athens Bar Association, the Technical and Economic Chamber of Greece and other unions have turned to the State Council requesting that the cuts are dismissed as unconstitutional.
The court held a hearing on Friday and, according to judicial sources, a verdict was expected in March.
According to official labor ministry data, half of the pensioners today are receiving pensions of less than 650 euros (760.5 U.S. dollars) per month.
Retirees have suffered more than one dozen reductions in the past seven years of the Greek debt crisis as part of austerity measures aimed to avert bankruptcy and fix state finances. Their average income has gradually shrunk to half since the start of the crisis. High income earners lost up to 70 percent of their initial pensions.
Under the planned new cuts the average Greek pensioner will lose a further 18 percent from 2019.
In addition to tax hikes, increasing prices of goods in the supermarket and given that many of these support their jobless children and grandchildren, households struggle to make ends meet, unions argued.
"We have had enough" retirees shouted on Friday outside the court in central Athens, while other protesters were reading the front pages of Greek newspapers at a nearby kiosk to learn the latest information concerning their pensions.
"The cutbacks we have already suffered are huge. From 1,200 euros we ended up receiving 750 euros per month as main pension. The 216 euros per month we used to get as auxiliary pension shrank to 60 euros. How can we possibly meet our financial obligations? It is very difficult," Vangelis Gatsos, a retired railways service employee, told Xinhua.
He travelled 500 km from Thessaloniki in northern Greece to protest against the injustice. He has a son who is still a university student to support.
Greek state hospital nurses also held a 24-hour strike and demonstration against a bill regarding their working conditions.
The draft bill equates nurses with university and higher-level degrees to non degree-holding nursing assistants Dimitris Skoutellis, president of the Panhellenic nurses union, explained.
"We will resist this bill, we will fight. Our university degrees are not garbage," he said. (1 euro = 1.17 US dollars)
