Yesterday’s big poll and her Pulse the Minister of Labor was asked to comment, Niki Kerameosspeaking to “Today» and to Dimitris Oikonomou and Akis Pavlopoulos on Friday morning.

Initially, responding to the “right turn” of the government, he pointed out that the term “turn” is an outdated concept, explaining that what matters are policies and persons. “So when Kyriakos Mitsotakis makes specific choices, he makes them on specific persons with special characteristics. For example, I heard about Nikitas Kaklamanis. Nikitas Kaklamanis with extensive parliamentary and ministerial experience. The special characteristics of a person are evaluated at any time by Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The same applies to Konstantinos Tassoulas,” the minister said, adding with regard to the opinion polls:

“Obviously we are interested and happy that there is an upward trend, but it does not make us complacent at all. Polls have their value, they capture the trend that exists at a particular moment. We are far from elections and we have a job to do: to implement our announcements and to constantly improve the lives of citizens. This is our goal.”

He even stated that later in the day he will visit the Peristeri Exhibition Center as part of DYPA’s “Career Days”, where on Friday (24.01) and Saturday (25.01) 240 companies offer 7,000 jobs.

“This is the biggest Career Day that has taken place in recent years. Through these Days over 8,500 of our fellow citizens have found work. This does not happen by itself, nor does it have a right or left sign. The effort being made is for these earnings to constantly increase. I remind you that we received the minimum wage at 650 euros, today we have it at 830 euros, the trajectory is for 950 in 2027, while we have a new increase from the month of April. This means that we have an upward, cautious course, at the same time that efforts are being made to reduce and abolish taxes and insurance contributions”.

What applies to the digital work card and overtime

At the same time, Ms. Kerameos emphasized that based on the data of the European Union, Greece is currently 11th in minimum wage, without this being ideal, as he said. “The average salary has reached 1,450 euros, full-time, while full-time and part-time at around 1,250,” he underlined.

“According to the data of the “Ergani” system, overtime in the branches of its application increased cumulatively by 815,509 hours compared to the years before the implementation of the digital card measure. Where were these hours before? They were not declared. So why does the digital job card matter so much? First, because it has a mission to protect the worker, so that the one who works x hours is paid even for those hours. However, it does not only protect the employee, it also protects the company from unfair competition. Think of one store doing everything right and another on the other corner not following the law.”