Greek police clash with protesters angry at Sunday shopping

Police pushed and shoved protesters in Athens' busiest shopping district, using pepper spray to break them up on the day of a nationwide strike.

The protesters, among them retail employees, were angry at the government's plan which allows shops to open on Sunday. They say the move mainly benefits large chains while harming small family-owned businesses.

Despite the officially-announced nationwide strike, shops in central Athens were open for business.

We are told how Sunday trading hasn't yielded the desired earnings for the businesses involved. Shop assistants and retail employees are seen to be exploited, as they work for long hours for virtually no money.

It seems as though customers are only merely window shopping. Wages and pensions have been cut by some forty percent as a result of the government's austerity policies in the past four years, with the unemployment affecting two million Greeks.

Consumer confidence in austerity-afflicted Greece remains a pictorial puzzle, bearing in mind that up to fifty percent of the country's half-million retail workers haven't been paid in up to 18 months while many retailers say keeping up with Sunday trading doesn't even pay for running costs.