KKE Gen. Sec meets delegation of OKANA

16:37 31/10/2014 - Πηγή: NewsBomb

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas had a meeting with a delegation of staff at the state-run drug…

Communist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas on Friday, 31/10/2104, had a meeting with a delegation of staff at the state-run drug rehabilitation agency Organisation Against Drugs

(OKANA).

A KKE announcement said that the delegation briefed Koutsoumbas on the efforts to privatise OKANA by outsourcing various services (cleaning, financial, legal) to private companies "with the clear goal that the state be fully relieved of responsibility for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of addicted individuals".

In the same framework, they claimed, there was an attempt to curtail the labour rights and worsen working conditions for OKANA employees, since staff that left were not replaced and any new staff hired were employed on a freelance basis, with more flexible labour relations.

They also referred to some 70 employees hired with financing from National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) funds to cover necessary OKANA activities, noting that these were now facing unemployment as the programmes expired, while the activities they supported might have to shut down.

Koutsoumbas promised that the KKE will take action within and outside Parliament to highlight the issues affecting OKANA and its staff and push for solutions. He also criticised the push for privatisation in the area of drug rehabilitation, saying it led to programmes with lowered standards.