Greek social partners in commerce reject labor market reform
Greek social partners expressed their deep concern about the consequences of applying the strict financial rules imposed by the Troika to Greece and rejected the reform of the labor market as unfair to workers, counterproductive for re-launching the economy and leading to social unrest. They further strongly condemned the Greek government for abolishing collective bargaining systems and reducing Greek citizens’ income to unsustainable levels.
Panos Kyriakoulias, from the Greek Union OIYE, explained that over the past 22 months Greece has witnessed an unprecedented and violent process of legislative reforms, both in terms of scale and speed, in the field of labour relations. The process of wage formation through collective bargaining between social partners and the content and scope of collective agreements have been severely affected. The new labor relations model has been presented as the right means to boosting competitiveness and drastically reducing labor costs. The economic crisis, which evolved in a debt crises along with the uncontrolled increase in budget deficit, was the starting point to implement strict fiscal policies with reduced public spending and increased public revenues. One of the direct measures taken as a consequence of Greece’s accession to the European mechanism of financial support and the resulting binding agreement on economic and financial policy in 2010 was the state’s intervention in labour relations, which culminated with the enactment of a law accelerating the “structural changes” in the labor market. Amongst others, it included the reduction of wages in the private sector and changes in the principles and rules of the collective bargaining system.
Greece is not a country of manufacturing; its economy mainly relies on services sectors, especially tourism and commerce (only 17 % of Greece’s needs are produced internally), therefore, if you reduce the income of the Greek people you reduce the capacity of the country to import goods from other countries thus leading to increased poverty and further economic recession. The cost of living and the level of wage should go hand in hand.
Mr. Kyriakoulias criticised the fact that no proper dialogue with the unions and employers have been put in place.
Mr. Stelios Stavridis, from Eurocommerce, also condemned the lack of proper social dialogue in the process of deciding about the reform of the labour market and labour relations. He criticised the drastic reduction in the minimum wage and in the 13th and 14th month’s salary and he warned against the dramatic figures of 20 % of unemployed people.
“Lower salaries do not mean more competitiveness” he said “we do not want people’s income to go down because companies are going down.”
Greece suffers from a system of high taxation, which is higher than in other European countries and which makes it less profitable to invest in the country. If reforms are to be made, they should tackle the inefficiencies in the fiscal system and the elimination of red tape and corruption.
Referring to the commerce sector, the social partners reiterated that people should be well paid for the work they do. Ultimately quality employment will result in quality services, more customer satisfaction and a better contribution of the commerce sector to sustainable economic growth for the country.
Finally they called for a stronger social dialogue and full involvement of social partners in Greece. The general national collective agreement for the commerce sector, which is being dismantled now, was effectively enforcing a climate of fair competition.
“If we want to find a fairer solution to the crises, we have to stand together and fight together,” the social partners said.