“A big thank you to all the Fire, Police and Armed Forces who are fighting the fires, especially in Rhodes. I hope that everything goes well until the end, that we don’t have any loss of human life”, said the Minister of Labor to SKAI and the program “Kalimera” with Giorgos Autias Adonis Georgiades.

“Some are mocking the Mitsotakis government’s choice to prioritize human life, but they are wrong. As devastating as the images of a fire are, if there are no human casualties, everything is rebuilt. The choice is correct, the authorities managed to evacuate many areas quickly and safely. Don’t risk your life to save material goods. We will compensate all material goods. Human life comes first”, stressed Mr. Georgiadis.

“Unfortunately, in the new reality, the fires will come no matter what we do,” noted the Minister of Labor on the occasion of climate change. “The point is to deal with them as quickly as possible, protect human life and give compensation as quickly as possible. In the bill of the Ministry of Finance, we also bring a common provision, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Labour, so that the businesses that were affected by the fires and are unable to operate, can suspend the employees for up to three months, provided that they do not fire anyone”, he added.

On the occasion of the heat wave and the measures to protect workers, Mr. Georgiadis emphasized that “the independent Labor Inspection authority is on the road today and is doing checks. Wherever a complaint is made in 1555, we go immediately. Apart from the tragic incident in Chalkida, there were no violations on Friday and Saturday.”

Referring to the death of the 46-year-old in Chalkida, Mr. Georgiadis emphasized that “they still cannot impose a fine as there is no official complaint that he was working without insurance.”

Regarding the withholding of a national pension of 413 euros per month from working pensioners, the Minister of Labor clarified that “the big bet of this four-year period is to increase the salary, to increase the disposable income and to be able to find a way to retrain our workers so that we can build the labor market of the following years because we have many deficits. It is an oxymoron in a country with 11% unemployment to have such a deficit in the labor market. It is a Gordian knot that needs to be broken. Part of the solution to the Gordian knot is removing the penalty from pensioners. We try to make the exercise so that no one feels wronged”

“What I care about is that the pensioner who wants to work does not feel that the state is chasing him because he wants to work. The 10% that will be included in the income will never be allowed to exceed the 30% that you paid before with the pension,” he added.