Fundamental rights related to social partners

Participants in this session considered that the rights of social partners were well protected by the broad statutory framework and the Constitution, which included explicit provisions on the right to collective bargaining, freedom of association, the rights of trade unions and the right to strike. However, they also felt that the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis and austerity policies had affected collective bargaining, public consultation, the ability of the social partners to influence political decisions, and democratic processes in general. This had exacerbated subsequent crises such as climate change, reception of asylum seekers and COVID, increasing economic and social inequalities in the country and leading to a gradual fall in the standard of living of the majority of Greece’s population. The public sector had borne the brunt of that situation, as illustrated by the compression of salaries – notably with the suppression of the 13th month’s pay and lack of salary increases in the past years. Social partners regretted their underrepresentation in trilateral social dialogue, which meant that the authorities had de facto had the last word. Years of economic adjustment programmes had also affected the quality of consultation of social partners, which they felt was too fast. Participants considered that social dialogue had proved useful during the COVID crisis and led to appropriate solutions, showing the need to set up a genuine tripartite dialogue to discuss all socioeconomic questions, beyond the simple remit of labour law.

Participants explained that collective bargaining existed at national, sectoral, company level, but that there had been a longstanding practice of submitting collective agreements to arbitration, abiding by the authorities' decision in the final instance. Greece had issued a declaration on Article 6 of the revised European Social Charter (on the right to collective bargaining), stipulating that it would not apply to arbitration mechanisms for the settlement of labour disputes. Social partners described such a system as almost "compulsory arbitration", which they considered was not to the standard of a democratic country and had a long-term freezing effect on collective bargaining. They explained that this system tended to be abandoned with time but that Greece was still looking for a better model of social dialogue. Social partners, and particularly employers, felt affected by the regrettably slow judicial system. A representative of the employers described how a Supreme Court decision on the calculation of the minimum wage had taken two years just to go through the admissibility stage. Others referred to legal cases involving extremely long court decision processes sometimes lasting for years, and thus undermining foreign investors’ trust and interest in placing FDIs in Greece. Such issues were present in courts at all levels, including administrative courts, acting as a clear deterrent to major investments in the country.