Greece's Alumil cuts workers' hours as slowdown bites

ATHENS, March 18 (Reuters) - Greek industrial firm Alumil is cutting back workers' hours after its order intake plunged in recent months due to the sharp economic slowdown across southeast Europe, it said on Wednesday. Alumil, which is the first major Greek company to announce such a measure, said its 2,500 workers in Greece and abroad had agreed to cut daily working hours to 6.5 from 8, taking a 20 percent pay cut. The reduced hours would last for up to six months, said Alumil, a supplier of aluminium components for construction. "This measure is our last resort," Chairman and Chief Executive George Mylonas told Reuters. "All of our employees have accepted it." Alumil reaps the bulk of its revenues from southeast Europe, where plunging local currencies have hurt profit. Sales totalled 287.6 million euros ($375.1 million) in 2007. Mylonas, also chairman of the Federation of Northern Greek Industries, said other companies had taken similar steps without making them public. A spokesman for GSEE, Greece's biggest private sector union, Stathis Anestis, said Alumil was the first major company to reduce workers' hours. "We fear such measures might spread," Anestis told Reuters on Wednesday. GSEE represents about 2 million workers in Greece. "Alumil's decision has a signal value because Mylonas is a federation chairman," Anestis said. The Greek economy is grinding to a halt after enjoying annual growth rates of about 4 percent for years, partly fuelled by the expansion of Greek companies in the Balkans. The European Commission expects Greece to post growth of just 0.2 percent this year with unemployment rising to 9 percent. Industrial orders have fallen for each of the five months in the August-December period. Business confidence among industrial companies hit its lowest level since 2001 in February, Athens-based Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research. Opinion polls show unemployment is among Greeks' top concerns. Fear of job cuts has pushed 79 percent of Greeks to cut spending, civil sector union ADEDY said on Wednesday, citing a poll of 1,600 people surveyed between March 4 and March 7. ($1=.7668 Euro)