Press Release No. 11/2017 Greece: IG Metall and Scholars Call for the Restoration of the Collective Bargaining System

IG Metall is convinced that the social divide in Greece can only be overcome if the labor market is stabilized again. “To achieve this, the collective bargaining landscape in Greece must be rebuilt,” explained Wolfgang Lemb, executive board member of IG Metall, at the conference “Reconstruction Instead of Deregulation in Greece” on Thursday in Frankfurt. “We want collective bargaining agreements in Greece to once again benefit all workers and for the unions to have a fair negotiating position,” said the union leader.

Until 2010, Greece had collective bargaining agreements in nearly all sectors that had been declared generally binding. Due to the conditions imposed by the so-called institutions (the ECB, the European Commission, and the IMF), this general binding status was revoked. As a result, there was “a widespread decline in wages and a rise in precarious jobs to unprecedented levels,” as Greek Labor Minister Eftychia Achtsioglou explained at the event. For the minister, restoring a functioning collective bargaining system is therefore an economic imperative and a fundamental right of employees.

IG Metall and the minister feel their demand is supported by a group of experts appointed by the institutions and the Greek government. The expert group recommends comprehensive re-regulation, such as a return to collective bargaining autonomy. A member of the expert group, Bremen-based legal scholar Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Däubler, called at the event for the minimum wage to no longer be set by the state but by the social partners as a first step.

In Greece, since the economic and financial crisis, unemployment has risen to an average of just over 25 percent, and among young people to as high as 50 percent. Wages have fallen by a quarter over the same period.