Greece – Social relations doc

To mark Greece's presidency of the European Union, IR Share and Liaisons sociales Europe offer an in-depth look at the Greek social relations system.
For the fifth time since joining the EU in 1981, Greece will take over the presidency on 1 January 2014. It is here, in the European country hardest hit by the crisis, which has laid bare an economy based mainly on public investment and debt, that the representatives of the 27 other Member States will be able to see the impact of the austerity measures imposed by the “troika” – the European Council, the European Central Bank and the IMF – since 2010.
The country is seeing unemployment soar to over 27% with no hope of returning to an acceptable level for several years (see p. 10) – a trade union research institute even forecasts a rate of 34% in 2016 – and poverty is on the rise (see p. 12), despite radical reforms in labour law and social protection (see pp. 6 and 7). But nothing is working!
The country has embarked on a path of economic modernisation by reforming the role of the administration and reducing bureaucracy in order to create space for a healthy and innovative private sector. A recent report by the Greek Central Bank points to initial positive signs of improvement and continued membership of the eurozone. Some, such as Professor Savvas Borolis, criticise the launch of a process aimed at transforming the Greek economy along the lines of developing Asian countries (p. 11).
In the meantime, this so-called ‘transition’ period is hitting the entire population hard, especially employees, who are facing constant threats to their jobs, reductions in pay and/or working hours, and the virtual disappearance of collective bargaining coverage (see pp. 6 and 10).
As for the trade unions (see p. 9), they have witnessed a total reconfiguration of the collective bargaining system, depriving them of most of their power and influence.