Company-level agreement for journalists signed at Hellenic Radio & Television

An enterprise-level collective agreement was signed on 6 February 2008 by the management of the Greece’s state-controlled Hellenic Radio & Television (ERT) and the ESIEA trade union, covering around 800 journalists. The deal comes at a time when industrial relations in journalism, at both ERT and the country’s other media organisations, are dominated by a government plan to merge the special social insurance fund for journalists with other insurance funds, which is opposed by ESIEA.

Main provisions of agreement

The enterprise-level collective agreement signed in February by the management of Hellenic Radio & Television (ERT S.A, www.ert.gr), the state radio and television operator, and the Journalists’ Union of the Athens Daily Newspapers (ESIEA, www.esiea.gr) is effective retrospectively from 1 January 2007 and expires on 31 December 2008. It covers some 800 ERT journalists with ‘subordinate employee’ status.

Pay issues

The agreement increases journalists’ monthly pay by 5.8% for 2007, backdated, with the sums due for 2007 to be paid within the next three months. For 2008, the agreed increase in monthly earnings will be another 5.8%.

A special extra payment has been agreed for journalists working in war zones or areas facing natural disasters. In these cases, apart from regular pay, there will be an extra payment of €250 for each day a journalist remains in such areas.

The agreement increases by 20% the allowance paid to employees in respect of children suffering from chronic incurable illnesses. This allowance will continue to be paid after a child has reached the age of 21 (normally, payment of child allowances granted along with working parents’ pay stops at 21), provided that the child is incapable of working due to physical or mental illness. In cases where such children marry or acquire an adequate income of their own from their jobs, payment of the allowance will cease.

Non-pay issues

The agreement sets up a joint ESIEA-ERT committee for the purpose of elaborating, within five months, proposals on the question of journalists’ intellectual property rights. Furthermore, it has been agreed that pregnant women and vision-impaired people must not be employed on computer terminals. Finally, the agreement provides for education/training seminars, at ERT’s expense, for the company’s journalists.

Journalists oppose social insurance reform plan

Despite the enterprise-level agreement at ERT, which should be followed by the conclusion of similar agreements for journalists in the private media, government plans for reforming the social security and insurance system (GR0711019I) have sparked intense opposition from the ESIEA journalists’ union. The government is promoting the merger of the current special social insurance for specific occupations. These funds, which operate at a surplus, cover highly educated professionals such as lawyers, notaries, doctors, journalists, engineers and pharmacists. The unification of these insurance funds, in the government’s view, will free up resources for the financing of the country’s social security system as a whole. Critics of the government’s plans, including the trade union organisations for these professions, argue that merger would affect the financial independence of these funds and put them into the red.

In opposition to the government’s intentions for the social insurance system, ESIEA, along with the other trade union organisations representing professionals considered to be adversely affected by the reform, are taking part in the continuing industrial action organised by the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) in opposition to the social insurance reform as a whole (GR0801059I).

Commentary

The enterprise-level agreement at ERT, which provides for pay increases exceeding inflation (ERT journalists’ pay will be increased by 5.8% in respect of 2007, when inflation for the whole year was around 3.9%), is the precursor for the conclusion of agreements in the other media organisations. However, industrial relations developments in the sector are to a large extent shaped by government plans to merger the journalists’ social insurance fund with other funds, a development that is meeting with strong opposition from the journalists’ union. Just a week after the enterprise-level agreement was signed at ERT, ESIEA took part in the general strike called by the trade union confederations in the private (GSEE) and public (ADEDY) sectors, where the main demand was to reverse government plans on social insurance system reform.

Stathis Tikos, INE/GSEE