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Bernadette Ségol, UNI Europa Regional Secretary, and Oliver Roethig, Head of UNI Finance, wrote in their letter that it was totally unacceptable that the Greek government was taking sides with employers in the current collective bargaining round.



The letter is addressed to President of the Eurogroup Juncker, the Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Rehn, the President of the European Central Bank Trichet and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Strauss-Kahn. It says:

Dear Messrs Juncker, Rehn, Trichet and Strauss-Kahn,



We write to you concerning the third review of the Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece. Our Greek banking affiliate OTOE informed us that in the review the Greek government made commitments to interfere directly with the autonomy of the social partners in the banking sector. Indeed, the government is taking sides with employers in the current collective bargaining round, not least by planning to enact legislation reducing workers’ rights.

This is totally unacceptable. Such action breaches key principles of the EU Treaty: respect for the autonomy of the social partners (Art. 152) and the fact that the EU has explicitly no competence over pay (Art. 153.5).

We request your urgent intervention to ensure that these commitments are removed from the list of action to be taken by the Greek government. It should be made clear to the Greek government that such commitments are incompatible with the acquis communautaire.



In detail, first, the Greek government commits to tabling legislation that places all registered banks’ employees under the same private sector status, regardless of bank ownership.

This undertaking means concretely enacting legislation to nullify collective bargaining provisions and facilitating the ability of employers to dismiss employees in private and public banks.



Second, the Greek government commits further to support banks in their effort to restructure operations by taking steps to limit bonuses and to eliminate the so called 'balance-sheet premium', or other equivalent measures.

Balance sheet premiums are part of the fixed salary of bank employees, amounting to half a monthly salary, paid once a year and provided for by the sectoral collective agreement since 1984.

During the current collective bargaining round, the employers’ side proposed to eliminate the premium. This would mean a reduction of the annual salary of bank employees by 3.4% or an average of EUR 1,200 per employee. For banks, this would mean, in contrast, increasing their profits by approximately EUR 80 million.

UNI Europa is strongly opposed to outrageous bonuses granted to bank CEOs and/or traders. We support the policy of the Greek government to cut these indecent bonuses. At the same time, we are astonished that the European Commission, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, as well as the Greek government, fall for a claim by banks that lumps together salaries of ordinary workers and bonuses of high earners. We see this as a blatant attempt to propose concrete cuts to the modest fixed wages of ordinary workers agreed by collective agreement, in order to deflect concrete reductions of bonuses – on which any proposal is absent from the memorandum.



In line with the letter sent to you by the ETUC General Secretary John Monks on 11 January, this policy of the Greek government to reduce the pay of bank employees is a prime example on how tackling the financial crisis has become a full-blown attack on ordinary workers, their rights, jobs, wages and livelihood.

The right way forward is ensuring financial and economic stability by moving towards a Social Europe. The approach taken to address the economic difficulties in Greece is instead based on more of the same neoliberal policies that caused the financial crisis, enrich the few and impoverish ordinary citizens.



We look forward to your urgent reply and immediate intervention on our request.



Yours sincerely,



Bernadette Ségol, UNI Europa Regional Secretary

Oliver Roethig, Head of UNI Europa Finance