Greece to claim more than €100m from OTE

The Greek government said on Tuesday it would ask its biggest telecoms company OTE to pay more than €100m ($145m) to help with the cost of a past voluntary retirement plan. The €1bn early retirement plan has blown a hole in the finances of state pension fund IKA, and OTE must incur part of that cost, labour minister Andreas Loverdos told reporters. OTE shed about 5,000 employees at its Greek fixed-line unit in 2006. The former state monopoly had to offer early retirement to older staff as it was not allowed to fire them under Greek law. Greece's new socialist government said it would review such early retirement plans encouraged by its conservative predecessors, to minimise the impact on the country's cash-strapped pension funds. "It is not a matter of confrontation with OTE. There will be negotiations," said a labour ministry official who declined to be named. Greece owns 20 per cent of OTE, whose German peer Deutsche Telekom owns 30 per cent of the company.