Traduction de «OTE » (Anglais → Français) :

What stage has been reached in the Commission's consultations with the Greek government on voluntary redundancy at OTE?

Although, as pointed out in recital 93, the labour rules imposed on OTE are indeed an exception to the ordinary labour law applied to date to any other private company in Greece, and the permanent status and the high salaries guaranteed to OTE employees were not in reality the result of a freely negotiated collective agreement, but rather imposed on the company by the State itself, the Commission notes that at no time since OTE became a listed company did the Greek authorities indicate that OTE’s labour law liabilities did not have to be assumed by the company’s normal budget or that the State would have to compensate OTE for the extra c ...[+++]osts of permanency and high salaries imposed by law on it. Likewise, OTE’s stock valuation was also based on the assumption that the permanency and high salary costs of OTE are normally for OTE’s budget to bear.

In particular, OTE’s obligations towards its employees are governed by (a) Greek employment law, (b) collective employment agreements negotiated between OTE and the employees’ union (OME-OTE), mainly before the market was liberalized, and (c) OTE’s general employment statute (‘GES’).

In particular, the reduction of around one third of OTE’s staff through the VRS, together with the consent of OTE employees to abolish permanency for future recruits in exchange for the early retirement package offered by OTE, are key components of the overall restructuring operations of OTE that should guarantee the company’s profitability, efficient operations and further privatisation.

Next, comparing the cost of OTE’s VRS with the costs of a VRS based on private-sector salaries, which are roughly one third lower than salaries paid by OTE, the Greek authorities estimate the additional salary burden on OTE at EUR 193 million, based on a comparison between OTE’s costs and twice the minimum legal redundancy compensation payments.

Such advantages could result from the specific employment status of OTE employees, the specific legal framework applicable to OTE or specific interventions, reducing OTE’s labour costs below the labour costs of companies subject to the generally applicable labour laws.