Clashes between laid-off cleaners and police outside Finance ministry

20:21 12/6/2014 - Πηγή: E-Typos

The Supreme Court's verdict suspending a Council of State decision regarding the rehiring of cleaners fired by the Finance ministry triggered clashes on Thursday between protesters and the police outside the Finance ministry, in downtown Athens, where the laid-off cleaners had gathered to protest the ministry's refusal to rehire them.
During

the incidents two cleaning ladies were injured, one of whom was hospitalised, along with one photographer covering the story.

Earlier in the day a delegation of five main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) deputies was received by Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis to discuss the issue. SYRIZA deputies said after the meeting that the minister stressed that he has not been briefed regarding the case and asked for a few days in order to meet with a cleaners' delegation.
The SYRIZA deputies told Hardouvelis that the issue demanded a political decision rather than an appeal to justice, while they stressed that the riot police "used more violence than necessary" and requested that they be withdrawn. Main opposition deputy Thanasis Petrakos reported that he was hit by policemen despite the fact that he showed them his parliamentary identification.

The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in an announcement criticised the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos) decision for suspending the original verdict in their favour and called on the employees to fight in order to "overturn the government's and the EU's anti-working class policies and guarantee the right to permanent and dignified work for all unemployed and laid-off persons."