Strife between workers and management at OSE

Download article in original language : GR9806178NEL.DOC

Employees of Greece's Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) came out on strike on 19 June 1998, demanding withdrawal of the draft labour regulations submitted by OSE management to the Panhellenic Federation of Railway Workers (POS).

The atmosphere in the Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) was described as being confrontational after management submitted to the Panhellenic Federation of Railway Workers (POS) draft revisions of the OSE working and rest time regulation (KOEAP), general staff regulation (GEKAP) and secondary pay regulation (KDA). In a meeting on 11 June 1998, the administration of POS took a unanimous decision to reject the drafts and break off dialogue with OSE management. Among other items, it stated that the new draft regulations both reverse social gains and workers' rights, and move in the same general direction as the current business plan aimed at cutting back the OSE' s network and activities and at preparing profitable parts of the railways for privatisation.

Taking each proposal individually, the main remarks and objections of the POS were as follows.

The draft KDA does not deal with the issue of rationalisation and readaptation of cash and other staff benefits provided for employment and overnight stays away from their home base, but rather attempts to restrict and freeze these benefits.

The draft KOEAP essentially foresees abolition of the eight-hour day, an increase in total working time and overall organisation of working time on a six-monthly basis. In particular:

• the maximum working day is defined as a normal working day increased by two hours, ie a 10-hour day;

• the total working day (ie the maximum permissible length of working day including breaks) is generally defined as the number of hours in a normal working day increased by four hours;

• breaks (ie the intervals during which the working day is interrupted) are reduced to one hour, and more than one break is allowed during the total working day;

• for mobile staff, time spent at their home base is reduced from 14 to 10 hours, and time spent away from home base can include six daily periods of rest (ie the interval between the end of one working day and the beginning of the next, during which employees may leave their workplace); and

• the length of the weekly rest period (ie a break in working time of at least 24 hours, during which employees may leave their workplace) is reduced from 32 to 28 hours.

Among other items, the draft GEKAP:

• introduces seasonal and part-time work;

• permits assignment to lower-grade duties as well as duties related to the main duties of employment;

• reduces the number of employee categories and grades;

• provides for the introduction of a system of promotion based mainly on selective promotion without objective criteria, as well as on integration of employees in the new grading system before jobs have been defined; and

• changes the rules on dismissals; and

• changes disciplinary rules in an allegedly "authoritarian" direction.

In this context, the POS called consecutive work stoppages from 19-23 June and called a 24-hour strike for 24 June.