Greece: firms slash salaries, work hours

Greek enterprises have cut salaries and working hours in order to reduce labor costs and survive under the huge pressure of the financial crisis, as daily Kathimerini reports quoting an ICAP's HR Pulse survey, which was published on Tuesday. At the same time, though, the increasing number of enterprises turning to investment in training and new technologies in an attempt to respond to the contemporary demands of the market is an encouraging sign amid the relentless change that labor and salaries are undergoing. In the second quarter of the year - the period covered by the ICAP survey - reducing working hours was an option chosen by 25% of companies as a means of cutting labor costs over the next three months, while only 5% responded by saying that they had already implemented the measure. Only 13% of companies said they are not planning to cut their labor costs, down from 18% in the previous quarter. Still, less than half (47%) said they had already cut their costs per employee, while 80% said they have not reduced spending on marketing training.