OPAP had initiated a voluntary redundancy scheme

Friday July 4,2014 :  MAJOR RETRENCHMENTS AT O.P.A.P.
 
Greek gambling monopoly offers redundancy packages to three-quarters of its staff complement.
 
Greek newspapers are reporting that the country's gambling group OPAP had initiated a voluntary redundancy scheme for about three-quarters of its staff to cut costs.
 
Trade unions serving the employees broke news of the initiative, but the company declined to confirm or deny the reports, which claim that the retrenchment drive will mainly affect OPAP's retail network supporting services.
 
Greece sold a majority stake in OPAP to Czech-Greek fund Emma Delta last year, marking the country's first major privatization under its European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout
 
The voluntary redundancy program will allegedly run from June 30 to July 15 for about 656 people, union leader Christos Kakouratos told the Reuters news agency, which reported that OPAP's staff totals about 900 people.
 
OPAP, which offers sports betting and lotteries through about 5,000 agents in Greece and Cyprus, had revenues of Euros 3.7 billion last year. Staff costs accounted for about 1.5 percent of that amount.