Greek bailout deal held up by labor reforms talks

ATHENS, Greece — Unions and employers' associations in Greece on Friday rejected private-sector wage cuts, as demanded by the country's international bailout lenders if Athens is to receive a crucial, second rescue package.

The impasse appeared to be holding up final negotiations for massive new debt agreements — a eurozone finance ministers' meeting, which had been expected for Monday to back the new proposals, was postponed to later in the week.

In a letter to the government Friday, unions and employers said they rejected proposals for the minimum wage to be slashed and annual salaries to be paid to Greek workers in 14 installments.

Private sector workers have already suffered a 14 percent loss in income due to emergency taxes imposed since the beginning of 2010, the letter said.

Wage costs have emerged as a major sticking point in negotiations between the government and rescue creditors from Greece's partners in the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund for a new bailout worth at least €130 billion ($170 billion) in loans.

The creditors argue that cutting labor costs is essential to making the Greek economy more competitive. However, both the unions and employers' associations counter that the move will only further depress consumer spending and therefore tax revenue.

The government must conclude negotiations on its second rescue package "that will ensure debt sustainability of the country in the long run, and that will bring remedies to a number of serious problems that the Greek economy has had even before this crisis," said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, spokesman for the EU's Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn.

"And one of the main problems of the Greek economy as we have said time and again here is the chronic loss of competitiveness over the past decade. ... Therefore all the elements, including elements linked to the labor market, wage formation, are part of these discussions."

Without the new bailout deal, and a related bond swap that seeks to cut the country's privately held debt, Greece would go bankrupt in late March, when it faces a €14.5 billion bond redemption it cannot afford.

Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said the bond swap deal, known as the Private Sector Involvement, or PSI, and the parallel negotiations with the eurozone, European Central Bank and IMF debt inspectors for the second bailout were almost complete.

"The PSI, I think, in its basic elements is ready," he told Real FM radio, adding that talks with the debt inspectors known as the troika were "in the final stage."