By Renee Maltezou and Karolos Grohmann
ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece’s parliament approved the conservative government’s pension reform bill early on Friday after weeks of protests and strikes by labour unions.
The legislation overhauls a pension system experts say will collapse in 15 years if not changed.
The bill passed in the 300-seat house with 151 votes in favour, from conservative MPs and one independent, and 13 MPs from the Leftist Coalition against. All other parties, including the main socialist opposition, abstained.
Labour unions accuse the government, re-elected in September on pledges not to curtail pension rights, of going back on its word. They have criticised the planned reforms for limiting benefits without improving the system.
Several hundred protesters remained outside parliament throughout much of the evening vote, a day after millions of Greeks walked off the job, grounding flights and closing ancient monuments, schools and banks.
“Today we must be very proud because our government fulfilled its pledge to the Greek people and in a few minutes this great pension reform plan will become a law of the state,” Labour Minister Fani Palli-Petralia told parliament just before the vote.
Unions got unexpected backing from the European Central Bank, which criticised the bill on Wednesday because it said it threatened the Greek central bank’s independence.
Opposition parties tried to delay the bill hours before the vote by gathering signatures to force a referendum.
“It is apparent that there is a great gap between the government’s position and the will of society,” Leftist Coalition leader Alekos Alavanos told parliament.
Under Greece’s constitution, it takes 180 deputies to call a referendum. Opposition parties do not have that many but have enough to demand a special session to discuss the referendum, which could have delayed the bill from becoming law for several weeks.
However, parliament ruled to hold the discussion on the referendum next week, a decision that allowed the vote to go ahead and the bill to be approved.
The reform bill affects mostly women, and especially working mothers. It merges scores of funds into just 13, cuts many special pensions and offers incentives to work more years.
Protests in recent weeks have caused blackouts, left mountains of rubbish in the street, disrupted transport and services, and halted trading on financial markets for days.
Greece, one of several European Union countries facing a pension crisis due to an ageing population, has been urged by Brussels to revamp its fragmented, wasteful and mismanaged social security system.
Experts say that if the Greek system is left unchanged, the pension funds’ actuarial deficits could reach 400 billion euros ($611.6 billion), almost twice the country’s GDP.
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