New banking agreement introduces pilot 35-hour week

Download article in original language : GR9906135FEL.DOC

In late May 1999, after four months of difficult bargaining, a new sectoral collective agreement was signed regulating pay and working conditions for employees in banks throughout Greece for the years 1999 and 2000. The new agreement, which is regarded as one of the most important of recent years, introduces for the first time the pilot implementation of a 35-hour working week in banks.

A new collective agreement for banks and similar enterprises was reached on 28 May 1999, after four months of deliberations, and was signed by the Greek Federation of Bank Employee Unions (OTOE) and representatives of the banking employers. The agreement, which covers approximately 55,000 employees, will be in force for two years, from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 2000.

Economic issues

The new agreement provides for an overall pay increase of about 5.8% over the two-year period, which will be made in two instalments. The first instalment, representing 3.4% of the total increase, covers the period from 1 January 1999 to 31 December 1999, and the second, representing 2.4% of the total increase, covers the period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2000. This increase relates to the basic wages (scales) set out in the unified pay scale for all categories of staff. Although OTOE commented favourably on the final result, it did not clarify whether the increases attained are proportionate to its initial demands (GR9903117F), or to what degree the pay increase improves workers' real incomes both in relation to increases in previous years (GR9706117N) and in relation to the workers' contribution to the increase in total productivity and profitability in the sector.

Pilot implementation of the 35-hour week

The principal provision on non-pay issues concerns the pilot implementation of a 35-hour working week. The agreed scheme is fully in line with the counter-proposal of the employers' side to the trade union's demand for the implementation of the 35-hour week without loss of pay (GR9904124N). Specifically, in article 5 of the new agreement, the two sides agree on the pilot implementation of the 35-hour week as follows:

• for the purposes of the pilot implementation of the 35-hour week, two branches and one extra unit will be selected in banks with at least 10 branches, and one branch and one unit for banks having four to nine branches. Those selected will be communicated to the OTOE and to the Association of Greek Banks (EET);

• the working week for the bank employees concerned is set at 35 hours, and daily working hours will not exceed those in force at present;

• the employees will work an uninterrupted working day;

• in the framework of implementation of the 35-hour week, the employees will work between 07.45 and 17.00 on a daily basis;

• any change in the current starting time for the working day is contingent upon the consent of the workers;

• banking hours will begin at 08.00 and end at 16.00;

• the pilot implementation of the 35-hour week will be uniform in all banks with regard to banking hours (08.00 to 16.00);

• the pilot implementation will begin on 1 August 1999 and will last eight months; and

• introduction of the 35-hour week does not entail loss of pay of any kind by bank employees.

After completion of the pilot implementation, the contracting parties are obliged to meet within 25 days to evaluate the conclusions arising from it. Arguably, the prospect is clearly that they will proceed to reduce working time without loss of pay and introduce the new working and banking hours on the basis of a specific timetable to be agreed upon. In the event that both sides acknowledge the need to implement the 35-hour week immediately, without loss of pay for workers, this will be binding uniformly for banks operating in Greece. Before beginning the pilot project, a meeting between representatives of the banks and of OTOE will be held, on the initiative of EET, to discuss issues touching on operation of the project and draw conclusions.

Other matters

Increases in special allowances are foreseen, in particular the day-care allowance, the summer-camp allowance and the childbirth allowance. The terms and conditions under which housing loans are granted are also improved substantially. Other significant regulations are those regarding issues of education, development of the workforce, employment and training. One example is the initiative to provide financial support for the research and training programmes of the OTOE Institute of Labour, aid for the sector's "employment observatory" and promotion of the creation of a sectoral institute of banking studies.

According to OTOE, the new collective agreement is the product of hard bargaining between the two sides, and is particularly satisfactory for banking employees. In particular, OTOE believes that the pilot implementation of the 35-hour week is a first and important step towards reducing working hours in banks without loss of pay, a measure that will be of decisive importance in helping protect employment and reducing the tension prevailing in staffs' present working conditions. OTOE also states that the improvement of workers' incomes, as well as the important regulations regarding housing loans and other issues of concern to banking employees, make the new collective agreement one of the most important of the last decade.

Commentary

In recent years, the content of collective agreements signed between OTOE and the representatives of the banks has often been superior to those in other sectors both in terms of both pay and other issues. This is also true of the new collective agreement.

However, the new agreement differs markedly from OTOE' s initial demands, a fact that creates serious speculations with regard to the possibility of a generalised implementation of the 35-hour week in the future. After the pilot implementation of the measure, the balance of forces which will have been created by that time will help decide whether implementation of the 35-hour week will prove to be of benefit to bank workers, or whether the employers' side will, on the pretext of reducing working time, manage to impose changes to working hours, formal or informal forms of flexibility, or ways of breaching the 35-hour week (GR9903116F).

On wages, the agreement does not provide for a corrective clause for the indexation of pay increases in the event of higher inflation, because it is now the general belief that the Greek economy is moving rapidly towards a stable situation of low inflation. (Eva Soumeli, INE/GSEE)