National General Collective Agreement signed for 2002-3

Download article in original language : GR0204109FEL.DOC

After two months of bargaining, Greece's new National General Collective Agreement for the private sector was signed in April 2002. The agreement will be in force for the two-year period, 2002-3. It provides for pay increases of 5.4% in 2002 and 3.9% in 2003, along with a variety of new provisions on employment conditions and social issues. The topic of working time reduction has been referred to a special committee.

On 15 April 2002, representatives of the General Confederation of Greek Labour (GSEE), the Federation of Greek Industries (SEV), the General Confederation of Greek Small Businesses and Trades (GSEVEE) and the Federation of Greek Traders' Associations (ESEE) signed a new two-year private sector National General Collective Agreement (EGSSE) for 2002-3, following two months of bargaining. The new agreement - succeeding the 2000-1 accord (GR0006175N) - covers pay and 'institutional' issues, as well as containing joint declarations by the two sides concerning their role and joint positions on issues addressed both to the government and to their own spheres of activity.

Employers' negotiating positions

After the invitation on 9 January 2002 by GSEE to its employer counterparts to open bargaining over a new EGSSE (GR0201146N), the negotiations started officially on 12 February and lasted about two months. Five official meetings were held between the two sides and there were also several private separate consultations of each side as well as meetings of the organisations' internal bodies. The issues needed to be worked out in depth due to their number and variety as well as the particularities and often the different policies of the various organisations.

In response to the overall framework of demands presented by GSEE - which included the aim of pay convergence with the rest of the EU - the three employers' organisations, on the basis of arguments put forward by SEV, voiced the following views:

• the EGSSE to be signed in 2002 coincides with the historic change of Greece's entry into the 'euro-zone'. By adopting the euro single currency, Greece has also entered a zone of price stability, in which it carries out most of its international transactions using the euro. The basic objective is real economic convergence, but this requires long-term efforts, and consistency in the objectives and policies adopted - first because the gap the country is seeking to narrow is a considerable one, and second because policies require time in order to produce results. Along this road, any setbacks not only lengthen disproportionately the time needed to achieve real convergence, but in certain conditions they may even reverse the interim results of previous efforts;

• the prices of domestically produced goods are increasing faster than those of imported goods. The different conditions in Greece are expected to generate higher inflation in 2002-3, compared with the EU average. This will put competitiveness directly at risk and bring about the loss of market shares;

• fortunately, productivity is expected to increase more rapidly in Greece than the EU average. According to some forecasts, the average pay of employed earners will increase more than two percentage points faster in Greece than average pay in the EU. With such increases in nominal wages, real convergence of the level of employed earners' pay with levels elsewhere in the EU is being achieved. In the next two years this figure will rise by 1.2-1.3 percentage points a year. However, this will have a negative impact on competitiveness, as in Greece unit labour costs will increase by around one percentage point faster than EU averages;

• if Greece does not stick to average pay increases of around 5.5% in the next two years, the sectors of the economy that are exposed to international competition, mainly industry and tourism, may face problems of development and/or survival of borderline enterprises. GSEVEE stated that it would support bigger pay increases, since higher incomes for workers boost consumption to the benefit of small enterprises;

• with regard to the issue of a reduction in working time - GSEE demanded the introduction of a 35-hour week - the employers' organisations, with some initial reservations from GSEVEE, formulated a proposal to reduce the working week to 39 hours (from the current average of 40 hours), on the condition that alongside this there would be regulation of a more flexible use of overtime exceeding maximum working hours and a reduction in its cost, following the severe burdens introduced by the recent law 2874/2000 (GR0104104N). They also stated that reducing the working week by one hour increases costs by 2.5%; and

• finally, the employers said that most of the unions' other non-pay demands would directly result in higher costs, which must also be taken into account. They also acknowledged the necessity of regulating some demands of a social nature, which support social cohesion.

The agreement

The new agreement reached by the social partners on 15 April 2002 includes the following provisions:

1. for 2002, a pay increase of 5.4% in two instalments. This figure includes 1.1% owed on the basis of a clause in the 2000-1 EGSSE. It was also agreed to introduce a clause in the new agreement guaranteeing an increase around of one percentage point higher than official average inflation for 2002;

2. for 2003, a one-off pay increase of 3.9%, without a corrective clause;

3. because of a difference of views on the issue of regulating overtime exceeding maximum working hours, the two sides assigned the issue of working time to a special committee, which will report its findings before the end of May 2002;

4. a series of new 'institutional' regulations, as follows

• better compensation for blue-collar workers on termination of employment contracts,

• a shorter period of service required before annual leave is first granted,

• an extra 22 days of annual leave for people undergoing haemodialysis,

• lengthening by six months the period during which parents may work shorter hours and granting additional leave to one-parent families with children under the age of 12,

• measures to activate projects by the Account for Employment and Vocational Training (LAEK),

• measures for the protection of elderly and dependent persons,

• support for volunteer work related to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and

• increased contributions to the Workers' Housing Organisation.

Commentary

As the two sides have made clear, everyone involved considers the 2002-3 national agreement to be a positive one, since it guarantees workers' incomes, takes the country's economic conditions and competitiveness into consideration, and makes provision on issues of social interest. When they entered into bargaining, the social partners were aware of their responsibility with regard to the parameters affecting Greece's economy, and in this framework they took serious account of official data and held discussions with the relevant banking and governmental authorities.

These national agreements have a positive impact on the labour climate in the private sector. They serve as a framework for sectoral collective agreements, and point up the sensitivity of the sides in labour and social issues.

The inability to agree on the issue of working time reduction underlines the important problems created by law 2874/2000 – which the workers' side also acknowledges in part – on issues of flexibility and costs, at a time when Europe as a whole is moving in the direction of reducing inflexibilities and facilitating the operation of the labour market.

Finally, the two sides agreed that this agreement should stress the stronger role they have to play in labour issues, and that they should urge the government to adopt the social partners' joint agreements and enact them in law. (Eugenia Tsoumani, SEV)