Action over employment conditions in media sector

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Since the beginning of December 2001, there has been increased industrial relations tension in the Greek press and other mass media, resulting in two 24-hour national strikes in February and March 2002. Here we outline the main problems concerning employment conditions in the sector, trade union demands and the main provisions of a new enterprise-level agreement signed at the ALTER television channel in March 2002, which is seen as an example of good practice.

Recent months have seen increasing levels of industrial unrest in the Greek mass media sector over workers' concerns with their employment conditions.

Employment conditions in the media

In the framework of market liberalisation and the reduction of labour costs in the Greek press and other mass media, changes are taking place in employment conditions in the sector, mainly centred on flexibility and deregulation of labour. As a result, most workers in the media are employed on a flexible basis as far as the scale and content of their employment and their working time are concerned. Trade unions claim that this entails a constantly increasing pace of work accompanied by a feeling of insecurity. Flexibility is also the rule with regard to wages and job security, with extremely low pay and frequent dismissals across the whole range of occupations, but mainly among journalists. This, it is claimed, has forced most workers to resort to second jobs in order to earn a decent living.

According to the Journalists' Union of Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA), there are many instances where wages are not paid on time, and many workers, most of them journalists, are employed as independent service providers, even when they have worked for the same employer for years. In addition, it is claimed that a generalised discrimination between media companies' internal and external workforce creates widespread inequalities of pay.

With regard to journalists, this picture appears to be confirmed by the results of a survey of a sample of 400 individuals, conducted between 29 January and 21 February 2002 on behalf of the European Greek Women Journalists' Network by V-PRC Ltd.

The survey found that 13.4% of respondents whose main employment was with a specific employer were not on the company payroll, and of the 86.1% who were on the payroll: 23.2% were not paid in accordance with the ESIEA collective agreement; 12.4% stated that their pay was slightly lower; and 9.9% stated that it was much lower than that set in the agreement. In addition, 22.6% of respondents were not covered by social insurance, and 34.7% had individual monthly incomes of only EUR 440 to EUR 880. With regard to employment, the average journalist surveyed performed 1.58 jobs, and only 52.4% were employed exclusively in one medium. As far as working time is concerned, the average total working week was 55.5 hours. With regard to union density in the sector, 52% of respondents were not members of a journalists' association or union.

Overall, the most serious problems pointed to by the journalists taking part in the survey were the following:

• job irregularity (working hours, arbitrariness on the part of employers, uninsured work) - reported by 25.4% of respondents;

• low pay - 25%;

• non-observance of rules of ethics - 13.7%; and

• unemployment and job insecurity - 11.9%.

Industrial action

Workers' discontent with employment conditions in the press and other mass media has led to industrial action ranging from short three-hour stoppages in December 2001 to two 24-hour warning strikes on 7 February and 6 March 2002. The two 24-hour strikes were called by a coordinating committee of 14 press and media workers' unions, including ESIEA, the National Federation of Journalists' Unions (POESY) and the National Federation of Radio and Television Company Staff Unions (POSPERT). According to a joint press release issued on 6 March 2002, the unions' basic demands in the sector concern:

• preventing collective redundancies;

• signing satisfactory agreements, such as that recently concluded at the ALTER television channel (see below), which guarantee decent wages and protect employment conditions;

• implementing existing collective agreements and the laws determining the rights and obligations of employers and workers, in parallel with the conclusion of agreements in areas not yet covered;

• signing annual employment contracts for all workers at Hellenic Radio & Television (ERT) who are at present employed under three-month contracts, and bringing their pay into line with the provisions of the collective agreement in force for Athens newspapers;

• introducing measures to safeguard the quality of information, providing people with news freely and objectively;

• introducing measures to protect workplace health and safety; and

• defending and improving all media workers' social insurance rights.

The above proposals form a common framework of demands, and there are also individual demands concerning special categories of staff in the sector. Overall, however, the recent collective agreement concluded between ESIEA and ALTER is characterised as an example of good practice.

Collective agreement at ALTER

On 4 March 2002, ESIEA and ALTER television channel signed a collective agreement regulating the terms and conditions of pay and employment for journalists at ALTER, meeting all the demands of the relevant staff at this particular channel.

On the economic level, the new agreement provides for important increases in basic monthly pay and in the benefits calculated on the basis of basic pay. In particular, the basic wage of employees with one or two years of service at ALTER is now 13.69% higher than the wages of equivalent internal staff at ERT in 2000, and 22.56% higher than the wages of external ERT staff. These differentials rise to 17.10% and 26.24% respectively, if the long-service allowance is calculated in, and the rate of increase rises according to length of service. The highest bracket is after 35 years' service, where the figures for the differential over ERT are 136.44% and 166.53% respectively.

Comparing the new ALTER pay agreement with the pay scale agreed by ESIEA at the EIIEA broadcasting company for 2001, the difference is smaller, since the ESIEA-EIIEA collective agreement is better as a whole than that at ERT. Nevertheless the wage differential is substantial, at 6.48% for newly hired internal staff and 17.94% for external staff. In the highest bracket, the respective figures are 5.42% and 29.35% respectively. As far as wages are concerned, one of the most important differences between the new ALTER agreement and the other agreements in the sector is the existence of a common pay scale for internal and external staff. In addition, the agreement at ALTER has introduced to the private sector a 10% allowance for degree-holders from Greek or foreign universities, and for the first time on a national scale has introduced an allowance for 'special conditions' and use of new technological means, amounting to 3% of remuneration.

On non-pay matters, the ALTER agreement introduces a regulation to protect intellectual property rights for the first time in Greece. Article 6 of the agreement specifies that in individual employment contracts special mention must be made of the medium by which journalists' texts are to be transmitted. To publish, republish or transmit by another medium, a special agreement is required, for which the employee's individual contract will set a special fee, regardless of whether the other contracting party gains any particular income from using the other medium. In accordance with the same article of the agreement, a committee consisting of representatives of the union and company is charged with defining before 30 June 2002 the meaning of 'original work' according to current or future provisions. The decision of the committee shall be mandatory for both parties.

Another important new rule concerns mergers and restructuring of mass media companies. Article 5 of the agreement states that in the case of a transfer of an operation or enterprise, this change has no effect on journalists' employment rights which were in force or were acquired under the previous ownership; employment is not considered to have been interrupted at any time. Furthermore, the new owner must state that it will make every possible effort to avoid dismissals or non-renewals of contracts for financial or technical reasons for a reasonable period of time, so as to avoid involuntary staff moves and transfers, as well as demotions and job changes.

Finally, the new agreement includes a 'no-strike' clause. According to Article 15, the two contracting parties undertake to uphold and implement the terms of the agreement, not to participate in any one-sided violation thereof and to resolve all differences that may arise through consultation, avoiding unilateral or surprise actions that could alter existing labour relations in any way. In this framework, ALTER staff did not take part in the 24-hour media strike on 6 March 2002.

Commentary

Over the past two years, the increasingly rapid pace of mergers and restructuring of companies in the press and other mass media, and in particular the changes taking place with regard to ownership and the manner in which such companies are formed and operate, have helped change the content of employment conditions in the sector. The changes taking place involve greater flexibility in employment, pay and working time, with adverse effects on the terms, conditions, extent and quality of employment. The unions have responded with the recent wave of strikes, which seek to apply pressure with the main purpose of improving employment conditions in the sector. In this framework, given the increased industrial relations tension, the agreement signed between ESIEA and ALTER is undoubtedly an example of good practice, with regard to both moderating tensions and pointing the way towards what constitutes a modern collective agreement in the sector. (Eva Soumeli, INE/GSEE-ADEDY)