Trade union views and proposals on the 2001 NAP

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In spring 2001, the Greek government has been drawing up its new National Action Plan (NAP) for employment, in response to the EU Employment Guidelines, and conducting a dialogue with the social partners on the NAP's content. Here we outline the positions and proposals of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) on the NAP's "adaptability" and "equal opportunities" pillars.

During March 2001, experts working with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security held a number of special meetings with representatives of trade unions and employers' organisations on the content of Greece's 2001 National Action Plan (NAP) for employment, in response to the European Union Employment Guidelines for the year (the fourth such set of annual guidelines for Member States' employment policies - EU0010276F). This wide-ranging dialogue on the Greek NAP was launched by the government. At the meeting on 26 March, the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) submitted its positions and proposals relating to the 2001 NAP and below we summarise the main points relating to those of the NAP's two pillars with the most direct industrial relations implications - "strengthening equal opportunities for women and men" and "encouraging adaptability of businesses and their employees" (the other two pillars cover "developing entrepreneurship and job creation" and "improving employability"). The Federation of Greek Industries (SEV) employers' organisation restricted its proposals to the employability pillar.

Adaptability of enterprises and employees

Under the adaptability pillar, the 2001 Employment Guidelines call for measures on modernising work organisation and supporting adaptability in enterprises as a component of lifelong learning, with heavy involvement of the social partners. Specifically, the social partners are invited to negotiate and implement at all appropriate levels agreements to modernise the organisation of work, including flexible working arrangements (eg introduction of new technologies and new forms of work, and working time issues such as annualised hours, working time cuts, reduction of overtime, more part-time work and career breaks). Member States are called on to review the existing regulatory framework in this area, allowing for more flexibility in employment contracts (plus adequate security for the workers involved). Member States should also endeavour to ensure better application at workplace level of health and safety legislation.

According to GSEE, measures to be included in the Greek NAP under this pillar should concern:

• the implementation of the existing institutional framework for industrial relations;
• seeking additional measures to safeguard workers' security in the face of the development of flexibility; and
• the content of bipartite agreements between the social partners aimed at boosting employment and improving its content.

For GSEE, the content of the measures adopted each year under the NAP should be evaluated on a stable, permanent basis, and be linked to the existence of the necessary support and monitoring structures in the course of their implementation. In this context, the following are proposed:

• a tripartite study and research into basic aspects affecting the pillar's guidelines, focusing on the creation of the necessary infrastructure so that the proposed policies come into operation (eg work organisation, evaluation of in-company training, the role of collective bargaining on employment, vocational training and work organisation);
• a permanent dialogue process relating to the NAP;
• introduction of an annual evaluation report on the implementation of the NAP's measures; and
• giving existing structures a special role in monitoring the course of the NAP's measures. This would include the Hellenic Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (ELINYAE) (GR9703107F) for health and safety issues and the Mediation and Arbitration Service (OMED) (GR9812102F) for matters concerning the content of collective bargaining.

With regard to boosting the credibility of the dialogue on the NAP, GSEE states that the government should commit itself to implementing those measures on which the trade unions and employers' organisations have made joint proposals.

The framework of measures proposed by GSEE under the adaptability pillar are guided by the following considerations:

• enforcement of the existing legislation by activating and reinforcing the mechanisms for monitoring labour legislation (such as the Labour Inspectorate - GR0102100F);
• addressing the perceived negative effects of labour flexibility and flexible forms of employment, by adopting rules to regulate its content and laying down the conditions to govern employment which is not stable and full time (eg measures regarding the content of fixed-term agreements, teleworking, "hidden" employment done in a position of subordination, part-time employment, hiring out of labour and subcontracting); and
• reinforcing the role of collective bargaining in the areas of employment, vocational training and work organisation.

Specific measures

In the framework of the guidelines set out above, GSEE proposes the following specific measures.

1. Creation of a new institutional framework for the concept of "work done in a position of subordination", in the light of the new conditions in which the concept of subordination (its economic and social character) now operates, so as to broaden employment protection to new categories of workers whose employment includes the characteristics of modern paid employment (eg bogus self-employed workers). A precondition for this is a national initiative to study and address the phenomenon of "economically dependent workers", in the same way that similar initiatives have been taken at the EU level to address the problem (EU0007259N).
2. Creation of a special operating framework for teleworking - which is seen to constitute a new form of employment - along with the protection of teleworkers, combined with a study of the development of the phenomenon in Greece and the use of experiences in other countries to develop policies this direction.
3. Creation of an institutional framework for specific forms of flexible employment, particularly temporary and part-time employment, so that their implementation does not undermine the concept of stable employment. In this context, the following are required: the introduction of an upper limit (10%) on part-time employees as a proportion of a company's full-time staff; a 25% increment on the pay of part-time workers; the introduction of a maximum time limit (of one year) for fixed-term contracts, and restriction of their use to cases of meeting emergency needs; and the creation of a protective framework for workers in cases where staff are hired out, on the basis of the principle of maintaining the most favourable employment conditions for the workers.
4. Creation of an institutional framework for industrial relations in new sectors of activity (eg work in the social sector) on the basis of the principle of establishing correspondence with the rights of workers in other forms of paid employment.
5. Maintenance and strengthening of the role of collective bargaining and collective agreements. More specifically, this involves: maintenance of the concept of the minimum guaranteed salary and wage; abolition of the possibility of undermining the content of sectoral collective agreements; and recognition of the right to collective bargaining at the level of groups of enterprises.
6. Development of parental leave through sectoral and enterprise-level collective agreements, in the framework of the relevant 1995 EU-level agreement between the social partners (TN9801201S) and Greece's 1996 National General Collective Agreement.
7. Development of lifelong training, through state intervention and collective agreements on the sectoral and enterprise levels and improvement of the quality of in-company training and reinforcement of the role of the social partners. Measures in this direction include: subsidising programmes which are designed and carried out in the framework of agreements between workers and employers; promoting special flexible training programmes for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises; and drawing up a special programme to assist innovative initiatives for in-company training based on joint schemes agreed by the social partners.

Finally, it is stated that a basic area for boosting employment as well as improved work organisation in present-day conditions should be a policy for managing working time in the direction of an immediate reduction of the working week to 35 hours without loss of pay.

Equal opportunities

The 2001 Employment Guidelines on "strengthening equal opportunities for women and men" call for a variety of measures by governments and social partners aimed at: introducing a gender mainstreaming approach; tackling gender gaps; and reconciling work and family life.

Among the measures proposed for addressing the gap between women and men, GSEE points out the need for cooperation between employers and workers aimed at drawing up collective agreements with the objective of narrowing the wages gap, addressing job discrimination and achieving a greater proportion of women in positions of responsibility. An example of positive action in this direction is collaboration between employers' organisations and the trade unions aimed at directly linking collective bargaining with issues of equality between the sexes, primarily through enterprise-level and industry-wide collective agreements and works rules. The main bodies promoting and implementing such action are the committees for equality.

Regarding working time flexibility and the promotion of certain "atypical" forms of employment directly related to it, as means of increasing employment and achieving equality of opportunity for both sexes in the labour market, GSEE states that:

• the basic objective should be to defend and increase full-time, stable employment and participation on an equal standing for men and women in paid employment (both quantitatively and qualitatively);
• part-time and other atypical forms of employment should be used in accordance with workers' needs and choices; and
• total working time should be reduced to 35 hours per week without loss of pay and without partial or overall flexible working time arrangements, while work should be made flexible and adapted to the choices of both sexes, rather than vice versa.

Finally, with regard to parental leave, GSEE believes that the possibility of amending Law 1483/1984 on this issue should be examined, at least as concerns the duration of parental leave, with full pay (including social insurance coverage).

Commentary

The 2001 NAP is Greece's fourth successive Plan for employment (GR0006177F and GR9906134F), although the results and evaluation of the previous NAPs are not known. Inasmuch as the unemployment rate has risen to 12% despite the implementation of the three previous NAPs, this evaluation must be carried out; it will make a decisive contribution to the design and effectiveness of employment policies in the immediate future and to restoring balance in the labour market. The lack of evaluation also directly affects the effectiveness of the dialogue between the government and the social partners, given that without an evaluation of policies already conducted or even a report on action taken to date, the content of the 2001 NAP for employment becomes general, without the possibility of formulating specific measures and new proposals on the basis of new conditions and new needs in the Greek labour market.

With regard to industrial relations, the guidelines primarily of the adaptability pillar are aimed at achieving a link between labour flexibility and workers' security through the creation of the necessary legislative interventions and collective agreements. In this context, GSEE believes that labour flexibility should not be a basic parameter for boosting employment but rather a supplementary measure, in view of the immediate priority of increasing stable, full-time employment. Thus, through its proposals, it is demanding that the conditions be created for laying down the rights of people in flexible employment in the face of unrestrained, uncontrolled labour market flexibility, and is proposing measures and collective agreements to restrict the negative effects of flexibility in the labour market, at the same time as strengthening the control mechanisms for the implementation of labour legislation. (Evangelia Soumeli, INE/GSEE-ADEDY)