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Victoria Mindova 

The Ministry of Employment and Social Security announced that about 120,000 workers will be removed from the lists of workers in hazardous and unhealthy occupations. After processing the lists about 420,000 workers working in harsh conditions will remain, out of 540 thousand employees today. 60 thousand people out of those will be from the managerial staff, which by yesterday appeared on the lists of hazardous and unhealthy occupations in the heavy industry, chemical industry, but has performed work from an office. 

Excluded from the lists of extremely hazardous and unhealthy occupation will be models, hairdressers, speakers, domestic helpers and some specialties directly related to tourism. Besides the obvious examples of inadequate hazardous professions, such as those employed in the fashion business, the lists of hazardous and unhealthy occupations still include different type of jobs such as the obsolete, asbestos mine workers. The use of the harmful chemical has been banned in Europe and Greece for years, and therefore the profession will be taken out of the list. 

The Ministry of Employment will not only focus on paring the lists, but will add new jobs that until recently were not considered serious and dangerous for the health. Among them are professional nurses, farmers, workers in the subway and other underground infrastructures, and cleaning staff. Updating the lists is assigned to a Continuous Oversight Committee which will review their contents every three years and check if they comply with the technological advances of working conditions and hazards in various sectors. 

The government intends to justify its conclusions based on already held local and international researches, and thus is expected to save time and money from conducting new researches. According to representatives of the Ministry, separate analysis of each profession will take at least two years and will cost the state millions. In this sense, this step will be skipped and new norms, rules and criteria will be established, which apply in other European countries. 

Currently, the government is submitting for public comment proposals to change the lists of the standing committee for assessment of hazardous occupations. It will continue until mid-August, then it will be brought for discussion and vote in parliament. By early September of this year the renewed lists will be 80% ready, say the Ministry of Employment. The only profession which will remain to be discussed will be specific cases such as those employed in the tourism sector. Waitressing is considered to be severe or injurious to the health job only in a few countries, but this also depends on the working hours. 

"In many European countries, working hours of restaurants and public places is until 12:00AM. In Greece, the average working hours of the same public facilities is from 7:00PM until 6:00AM. We should take into account the peculiarities of the local labor market in different sectors before making any final conclusions," say representatives from the Ministry of Employment. 

The government has decided to give a grace period for employees who will complete their work experience by the end of 2015. In such cases exception will be made and those people will be able to retire without having to change their legal labor relations. In other words, if after the changes, their position is excluded from the lists of hazardous professions, they will be eligible to retire under the rules of the old law. 

Editing the lists of hazardous and unhealthy occupations is expected to lead inevitably to conflict between the government and unions. However, the office of the Minister of Employment and Social Security, George Koutroumanis, does not expect major turmoil. According to a GRReporter source, Minister Koutroumanis held a series of meetings with trade union organizations and associations in the affected sectors, so as to reach consensus on the final version of the updated list of hazardous professions. 

Official announcement of the Union of employees in the private sector states that unions will not accept any changes to the lists of hazardous professional without them being scientifically proven. According to them, the only reason for the reform of the lists is the obligation of the government to cut hazardous occupations with 10%, which is recorded in the Memorandum of financial assistance. "Our position is clear and uncompromising: No changes to the lists of the hazardous and unhealthy occupations without the absolute scientific evidence of their safety," says the union.