In the face of the current economic and fiscal crisis the Greek government has implemented a host of legislative changes seriously curtailing trade union power and is planning more.
It’s a familiar story that has played out countless times in Greece over the past few years: under pressure from the country’s lenders, the government introduces legislative reforms that are hugely unpopular, yet necessary to keep the country funded with loans from abroad. In this story the troika’s representatives (IMF, ECB and European Commission) play the role of benevolent but stern disciplinarians / evil masterminds depending on one’s outlook.
But in this case the story simply isn’t true, as highlighted in today’s Eleftherotypia. In response to a written question posed by SYRIZA’s MEP Nikolaos Chountis, European Commissioner Olli Rehn made it clear that certain unpopular legislation weakening labour unions was not the product of the troika’s demands.
Specifically Mr Chountis asked: “Have the European Commission and Troika demanded that the Greek Government amend the institutional and legal framework governing trades union in Greece? Has the question of institutional intervention in elections in the workplace and in trades union been raised?”
To which Mr Rehn responded: “The Commission together with the ECB and the IMF is engaged in a regular policy dialogue with the Greek authorities on a broad range of labour market issues. However, the subjects mentioned by the Honourable Member are not part of the policy conditionality agreed between the Greek Government, the IMF, the ECB and the Commission on behalf of the euro area Member States in the context of the economic adjustment programme for Greece.”
The answer has been seized by many on the anti-memorandum front as proof that Greek employers, under the cover provided by the crisis, are working hand-in-glove with the government in order to fulfill long-held goals of weakening the power of trade-unions, curtailing worker’s rights enabling ‘medieval’ levels of worker exploitation.
It is not the first time that such charges have been made. In 2012 legislative changes affecting the labour market including minimum wage cuts were widely perceived to have come at the behest of large employers in the tourism industry, according to reports at the time. Similarly, reductions in legally mandated severance payments for fired bank workers were also thought to have been implemented at the request of the banks, not the troika.
Critics attest that such legislative changes are targeted more at boosting companies’ bottom lines and their ability to strong-arm trade unions, rather than addressing problems in the Greek labour market.