Employees’ union announces 24-hour nationwide strike in retail trade next Sunday

13:44 17/1/2014 - Πηγή: Matrix24

The Federation of Private Employees has called a 24-hour nationwide strike in the commerce sector on Sunday, January 19. An announcement by the federation said that employees are continuing their struggle against law allowing shops to open on Sunday, “which abolishes the right to the Sunday holiday”.
The federation questioned figures given by trade associations and the development ministry, according to which the operation of stores on Sundays and on the “white night” boosted turnover

in the market and stresses that the reality is different.
It says specifically that “the overwhelming majority of stores that tried their operation on Sundays did not succeed in covering even their basic operational costs. People went out for a stroll and not for shopping. Thousands of employees who were obliged to work on Sundays neither received a day off nor were they paid. They worked for free for the employers, while at the moment thousands of employees in trade are unpaid for over six months. Working 2-3 days a week in rotation has become a generalised trend. The young people on a four-hour timetable are not paid more than 250 euros a month.”
The federation believes that Sunday opening for shops must be overturned because it is leading more small and medium-sized enterprises to closure and thousands of new layoffs. A strike rally is scheduled to take place in central Athens at noon on Sunday, in the main shopping districts around Syntagma Square and Ermou Street.

source: ΑΜΝΑ