Greece: Industrial relations background

The structure of Greek trade unions is three-tier. Firstly, unions exist at company or local level. In recent years, the number of unions at this level has increased as a direct result of the decentralisation of collective bargaining. Secondly, industry-based federations and labour centres organise company-level unions within certain administrative regions. Thirdly, central trade union confederations group together federations and labour centres at national level. At this level, the GSEE confederation is recognised by law as the only representative organisation entitled to engage in national-level bargaining.

Main organisations and union density

Constituent trade unions of the GSEE confederation cover the majority of private and public sector employees whose employment contracts are concluded under private law. In terms of bargaining, the most powerful union federations are those representing employees of the public sector utilities, such as DEH in the Public Electricity Corporation, OME-OTE in the National Telecommunications Organisation, OPSA in the civil aviation sector and OTOE in the banking sector. The union federations with the highest membership and widest coverage are OEKIDE in the textile industry, OOSEE in the construction sector, POEM in the metalworking industry, PNO in the shipping sector and POEEYTE in the food industry.

Civil servants have their own confederation, ADEDY, which groups together all the federations, national unions and local branches representing civil servants. The most important federations of ADEDY are the OLME Federation of Secondary Education Teachers, the DOE Federation of Primary Education Teachers and the OEY Federation of Tax Collection Employees.

In terms of trade union density, political rivalries, inter- and intra-union conflicts, lack of financial autonomy and increasing unemployment have taken their toll. According to the GSEE, union density - the ratio of registered union members to the total workforce - peaked in the early 1980s at 30% but is now thought to be somewhere between the 1989 level of 26.3% and the 1992 level of 21.9%. A recent study from the International Labour Office (ILO)¹ estimated trade union density in 1995 to be 24.3%, which represents a fall of 12.4% since 1985. Such estimates of union density in Greece include public sector employees where union membership is higher than in the private sector. However, in spite of a general downward trend in union membership and despite the fact that the GSEE is reported to represent less than 20% of the workforce, the industry-based federations in key sectors such as banking, transport and the utilities remain strong, as do the civil service federations.

Employers' organisations

Greek employers are organised into three national organisations - the SEB Federation of Greek Industries, the ESEE Confederation of Greek Trade and the GSEBEE General Confederation of Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses, Craftsmen and Traders of Greece.

The SEB employers' federation was founded in 1907 and is the most influential of the employers' organisations. According to the ILO, the SEB covers 3,560 companies which employ 80% of the total workforce in the private sector. The SEB, along with the ESEE and the GSEBEE, engages in bargaining with the GSEE trade union confederation to determine the National General Collective Bargaining Agreement (EGSSE) which sets out minimum pay and conditions for the private sector (see below). In addition, the SEB plays a central role in the conclusion of some 100 sectoral and occupational collective agreements. SEB members are either single companies or regional associations of industries and since 1989 membership has been increasing, due to the creation of more companies in the service sector which tend to join the SEB.

The ESEE Confederation of Greek Traders Association was formed in 1995 and was formerly known as the Federation of Greek Traders Association, founded in 1987. The confederation, which comprises 62 regional traders' associations and three sectoral associations, claims to cover 92% of registered traders in a sector which is dominated by large commercial chains.

The GSEBEE Confederation of Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses, Craftsmen and Traders of Greece, which was founded in 1919, was led until 1984 by government appointees. Now the confederation elects its leaders and comprises 56 local regional federations and 19 sectoral federations. In a sector consisting of more than 100,000 small enterprises or self-employed entrepreneurs, GSEBEE coverage is said to be below 10%.

Employers also tend to organise by sector, and other important employers' organisations include: the EEE Union of Greek Shipowners and the London-based Greek shipping Cooperation Committee; the EET Association of Greek Banks; and the POX Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers.

Since the early 1990s, employers' organisations have been playing a more prominent role in national industrial relations and economic policy-making. This is a result of the SEB adopting a strategy advocating consensus and social dialogue, especially in areas such as employment and vocational training.

Collective bargaining

Legislation plays a key role in the regulation of collective bargaining structures and processes. Although between 1955 and 1990 extensive legislation on collective bargaining had created in theory a rather inflexible bargaining structure, in practice the reality was different. For example, between 1975 and 1980 pressures towards decentralised and fragmented bargaining at company level increased and were particularly prominent in the manufacturing sector, in spite of the fact that a statutory ban on decentralised bargaining was in place.

As a result of rapid expansion in the manufacturing sector in the 1970s, pressure was exerted by trade unionists to establish bargaining structures in new companies. Therefore, despite the prohibition of decentralised bargaining, plant-based unions attempted to establish bargaining procedures outside the formal structures and sought to achieve improved terms and working conditions through industrial action. In particular, union activists targeted single-employer arrangements on wage determination and working conditions, therefore initiating informal decentralised collective bargaining in parallel to the formal national or occupation-based negotiations. This strategy proved successful and although full recognition for plant-based unions was granted in 1982, their statutory right to engage in company-level collective bargaining was only incorporated into legislation (law 1876) in 1990.

In 1990, the newly-elected New Democracy Government announced a programme of austerity and reform which was to have a dramatic impact on Greek industrial relations. Central to the reforms was a wave of privatisation of public companies and pensions reform, which prompted widespread industrial action throughout the year. At the same time, the new Government introduced legislation aimed at regulating bargaining and reforming legislation governing industrial action.

In 1990, four formal bargaining levels and four types of collective agreements were established under law 1876:

Law 1876 was seen as a major reform of collective bargaining given that it recognised industry- and company-level bargaining. Both bargaining levels had been excluded from law 3239, the 1955 legislation on collective bargaining. Since the introduction of the 1990 legislation, the majority of collective agreements have increasingly been concluded at industry and company level while the number of occupational accords has been falling.

During the 1990s, national-level bargaining has tended to take place every two years. The most recent two-year National General Collective Agreement (EGSSE) was concluded in May 1998 for the period 1998-99 and is the fourth bi-annual national agreement to be concluded in the 1990s. The agreement increases pay by 2.87% from 1 January 1998, 2% from 1 July 1998, 1.4% from 1 January 1999 and 1.4% again on 1 July 1999. It also provides for extra increases if inflation exceeds expected levels. It also increases annual leave to five weeks for those with 15 years' service in 1998, extending this in 1999 to those with 14 years' service or 12 years' service with one employer. GSEE demands for the reduction of the working week from 40 to 35 hours without cuts in pay were not met. Civil servants do not have the right to engage in collective bargaining, although the ADEDY civil servants' trade union is pushing for this ban to be dropped.

The EGSSE sets the nationally-agreed pay minima for all employees in the private sector and is legally binding. In the past, the rates of increase in these minima contained in the EGSSE have largely been considered by trade unions as the basis for additional increases at industry, occupation and company level. Therefore, these collectively-agreed minima have usually been improved upon in lower-level accords. However, this tradition has recently been contested by the SEB employers' federation, which claims that the minimum level agreed in the EGSSE should be reinforced by lower-level accords. By contrast, the GSEE trade union confederation is adamant that the national minima should continue to be a floor for further increases, with the rate of increase agreed in the EGSSE as a starting point for negotiations at sectoral and company levels.

Industrial conflict

On 8 December 1990, legislation was adopted which aimed to reform regulations governing industrial action. The new law (law 1915) was the Protection of Trade Union Rights Act and amended the 1982 Trade Union Democracy Act. The new legislation contained provisions on issues such as dismissal during industrial action, the maintenance of essential services during strikes and the definition of public service utilities.

Law 1915 states that during a lawful strike there is no obligation for the employee to work, unless the job is considered to be an essential service, and there is no requirement for the employer to pay wages. Under this legislation, an employer cannot lock out employees or hire new workers to replace those on strike. In recent years, strikes have occurred in public sector organisations which have faced closure or privatisation, while strike activity has also been common in the banking sector, in public utilities and in the transport industry. In the recent past, there have been relatively few strikes in the private industrial sector.

However, in 1994, law 2224 introduced new regulations on industrial action and overturned many of the reforms contained in the 1990 legislation. For example, the 1990 legislation restricted the right to strike, through a mechanism which granted courts the authority to determine the legality of a walk-out prior to industrial action. Workers who subsequently defied court orders could be dismissed without appeal. The 1994 legislation overturned these provisions.

A major reform of mediation and arbitration during industrial action, took place in 1990 under provisions in the new legislation reforming collective bargaining (see above). This followed years of regulation by a system of compulsory arbitration - between 1955 and 1990, law 3239 provided for compulsory arbitration by the Ministry for Employment in collective disputes. Consequently, half of the disputes between 1964 and 1990 were settled by compulsory arbitration courts. However, the high degree of state-controlled arbitration involved in resolving disputes did not succeed in minimising recourse to industrial action. Moreover, observers suggest that the system of compulsory arbitration was seen by the Government as a way of ensuring that its incomes policy was implemented. Therefore, according to commentators, the system of compulsory arbitration failed not because it was compulsory but because it was not a system of real arbitration, with the perception that there was an inherent bias in the composition of the Arbitration Courts. Unions complained that the composition of these courts constituted a built-in majority for management while employers complained that the courts were too sensitive to political considerations, including the needs of government policy.

However, the system of compulsory arbitration was abandoned in 1990 following the adoption of law 1876. This legislation, which took effect in 1992, created the OMED Organisation for Mediation and Arbitration, which is a tripartite body with a core group of mediators and arbitrators consisting of 20 experienced industrial relations specialists. Mediation services are provided to social partners to resolve disputes in collective bargaining over wages, working conditions, the size of the workforce available during strikes in essential services - by law, essential public services must be maintained during industrial action - and in the case of social dialogue which is required before any public sector industrial action can take place.

In the event of a collective dispute, OMED experts can be called in at the request of either party involved in the dispute. If the dispute cannot be resolved within 20 days, the mediator will present a written proposal for a settlement. The parties then have five days in which to accept the proposal. If the terms of the proposal are accepted, they form the basis of a formal and valid collective agreement.

A dispute would only be referred to arbitration in the following circumstances:

Since the introduction of OMED, there has been a marked decrease in the number of strikes.

An addition to these provisions was included in 1994 in law 2224. Under this law, public sector unions are required to give four days' notice of any strike and it is during this four-day "cooling-off" period that OMED can be called in to mediate.

Workplace industrial relations

Law 1568, dating from 1985, established the right for employees to set up health and safety committees. This right applies to companies with at least 50 employees, while employees in firms with up to 50 workers have the right to elect a trade union health and safety representative. However, since no system has been put in place to monitor the establishment of health and safety committees, it is widely believed that many firms are without such representation.

The right to establish works councils, introduced by law 1797 in 1988 as a result of the ratification of International Labour Convention 135 on workers' representatives, covers companies employing more than 50 employees and firms with a workforce of over 20 people if the workplace is without union representation. However, observers have noted that works councils have played only a marginal role in industrial relations because few companies have established them. One explanation for this is that the role of works councils may be seen to impinge on the activities of company or plant trade union representatives, who themselves are struggling to retain their influence in company-level industrial relations.

Advisory bodies

One recent development in Greek industrial relations has been the emergence of tripartite and bipartite advisory bodies. While the OMED Organisation for Mediation and Arbitration, described above, is one such body, the ELINYAE Hellenic Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, the OKE Economic and Social Committee and the EIE National Labour Institute also operate in an advisory capacity.

The ELINYAE health and safety body was established in 1993 and was the first bipartite body to be founded in Greece. Proposals for its creation were first suggested in 1988 and consolidated in the 1991-92 National General Collective Agreement. The institute's role is to provide scientific and technical support to national policies for the improvement of working conditions.

The OKE Economic and Social Committee was established in 1994 under law 2232. The OKE consists of 48 members in equal numbers from three groups: trade unions; employer representatives; and a variety of professional associations and social groups such as farmers and consumers. It is compulsory for the OKE to express opinions on a wide range of matters before the enactment of relevant legislation. The issues within the OKE's remit are labour relations, social security, taxation, socio-economic policy, regional development, consumer protection, investments and competition.

The EIE National Labour Institute is a tripartite body which was founded in 1993. Its role is to assist policy-making in the area of vocational training, employment and labour relations. While the EIE is independent of the Ministry for Employment, there are close links between the two organisations. The EIE's board is made up of representatives from the main trade unions and employer organisations along with representatives from the Ministry for Employment, Ministry for Education and the Greek Manpower Employment Agency.

Employment law

Greece is a country where legislation plays a central role in the regulation of industrial relations. However, successive reforms of various aspects of industrial relations legislation have resulted in a disparate set of laws.

In terms of collective employment law, we have already referred during the course of this article to the key legislation on trade union rights, collective bargaining, the right to strike and workplace industrial relations. In addition to these, law 2112, dating from 1920, and law 1387, from 1983, regulate collective dismissals. The 1983 legislation was introduced to transpose the 1975 EC Directive on collective redundancies.

Individual employment law is primarily regulated by Articles 645 to 680 of the Civil Code, and laws 2656/1953 and 763/1970 govern the control of the labour market and recruitment. According to these laws, the OAED Greek workforce employment organisation must be notified of new recruitment within eight days in the case of companies which have been operating for more than three months and within 30 days in the case of companies operating for less than three months. In addition, law 1892, passed in 1990, regulates part-time working and fixed-term contracts. Under this legislation, part-time working was legalised and defined as contracts in which daily or weekly working hours are shorter than those set out in full-time contracts. While this law also regulates fixed-term contracts, Articles 671 and 672 of the Civil Code contain provisions governing a situation where a fixed-term contract overruns its limit and where it is terminated before it is due to expire.

New draft legislation on labour market flexibility and industrial relations regulation was recently presented to parliament and the social partners. The Bill seeks to amend existing legislation on atypical employment contracts and part-time working, allows for greater flexibility in the organisation of working time and provides for the setting of pay levels below collectively-agreed sectoral minima in some cases.

Conclusions

It is clear that Greek industrial relations have undergone considerable changes in the recent past. While successive Greek governments have been commended for the reform undertaken thus far, primary future concerns focus on the further development of workplace industrial relations. In particular, measures need to be implemented to expand the role of company trade unions and improve their consultation rights, in the mould of works councils, in an attempt to encourage them to help determine the increasing number of local- and company-level collective agreements. Meanwhile, in the foreseeable future, it appears that the focus of collective industrial relations will be the public sector utilities and the civil service. Recent disputes at the Ionian Bank over privatisation plans and at Olympic Airways over restructuring bear witness to the fact that the Government's plans to streamline and modernise its public sector enterprises face a long and uphill struggle

Further reading

"Greece: the maturing of the system", Nicos D. Kritsantonis, in Changing industrial relations in Europe, eds. Anthony Ferner and Richard Hyman, Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1998.

Greece in context

General

Greece, officially known as the Hellenic Republic, has a population of 10.25 million people inhabiting an area of 131,957 square kilometres. The capital city of Athens has a population of 772,072.

Political system

Greece is a republic which is based on a single-chamber parliament called the Vouli. The 300 members of parliament are elected by a form of proportional representation for a four-year term, although early dissolution is also possible. The head of state is the President, who has no executive powers and is elected by parliament for a five-year term. The President - currently Costis Stefanopolous, elected in March 1995 - appoints the Prime Minister based on the ability of the latter to gain majority support in the Vouli. The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) currently forms the Government - it was elected in September 1996 and the current Prime Minister is Costas Simitis.

The main political parties are the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK); New Democracy (ND); the Greek Communist Party (KE); the Coalition of Left and Progressive Forces (Synaspismos); and the Democratic Social Movement (DIKKI).

¹ World Labour Report, "Industrial Relations, democracy and social stability 1997-98", available from International Labour Office, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP, tel: 0171 828 6401, price £24.30 plus 10% p&p.

² Eurostat figure.