SYRIZA: Decision for workplace rapid tests an admission of government's criminal indifference

"It took 11 months of pandemic, 6,000 human lives lost, thousands of cases, the dismantling of the Labour Inspectorate (SEPE) and the imposition of a third catastrophic lockdown for the government to understand that large workplaces are the biggest source for the super-spreading of Covid-19," main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance said in a statement on Friday, commenting on the government's decision to offer free rapid tests for employees.

"The labour ministry's delayed announcement of rapid tests in the workplace is an admission of the government's criminal indifference, which led to an explosive spread of the pandemic," the statement concluded.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the party noted, all scientists - as well as SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance - had demanded continuous inspections and targeted free mass testing in workplaces, which have been turned into health bombs, only to receive a reply from the government, through Mr. Tarantilis, that "there is nothing that officially correlates" transmission to workplaces. It also accused the government of "doing nothing all this time apart from legislating disincentives for workers, forcing them to do unpaid work if they dared to go into quarantine to protect public health."