Admittedly, the Minister of Labour’s presence in Parliament yesterday for a general discussion on pensions, especially the 12% penalty and the provision of widower’s pensions to men, lasted for about an hour and a half.
That’s why the Chairman of the Committee, Andros Kafkalias, from the beginning of the discussion, asked everyone to be brief in their remarks.
Moreover, when the time reached 12:30 and the Committee had to start examining another issue, with the invited guests already outside the room, Mr Kaukalias reminded them that they had to interrupt, to the disappointment of the Minister of Labour, Yiannis Panayiotou, who seemed to have no problem continuing the discussion.
In this context, he readily accepted the Committee on Labour’s proposal to be present again shortly for the examination of the Social Welfare Service’s policies.
In practice, as Mr. Kafkalias also noted, their new meeting will be inevitable since the proposal for the 12% penalty will likely require legislative regulation. We shall see.
A.A.
