establish flexible 8-hour workdays (10, or even 12
hours in boom periods and 6 or 4 hours in periods
of reduced activity). This will reduce labour costs,
as employers will avoid paying overtime.
In regard to enterprise-level agreements, the
Ministry is contemplating, in cooperation with the
Ministry of Justice, ways for facilitating the forma-
tion of enterprise-level unions; presently, this pro-
cedure is protracted, since approval from the
Courts of First Instance may even take 8 months.
The Troika’s instructions are clear: all obstacles
must be lifted. In the short run, the Ministry of
Labour is anticipating the signing of enterprise-
level agreements in two major sectors, tourism
and banks. These two sectors employ more than
140,000 people (60,000 and 80,000 respectively),
while payroll costs account for a large part of
operating expenses, and play a major role in the
final formation of the cost of services (mainly in
tourism).
In banks, negotiations for the signing of an indus-
try-wide agreement with the Greek Federation of
Bank Employees Unions (OTOE) are at a com-
plete standstill. Bankers refuse to discuss, and
indirectly leave the situation to “mature” in order
to present enterprise-level agreements as a done
deal, passing staff cuts as the only alternative, on
the pretext of the planned mergers.
At the same time the government has almost
completed legislation that, in accordance with the
memorandum, will subject bank employees to the
same status with of private sector workers. In
other words, Collective Employment Agreements
(for bank employees hired until 2005) will be
rescinded and lay-off limits will be abolished,
while compensation for dismissal will be reduced.
Nonetheless, Law 3846, which was tabled to
Parliament by the then Minister of Labour and
Social Security, Andreas Loverdos, on May 11,
has led to the enactment of three labour laws,
which imposed the following changes on millions
of workers:
•
In the case of temporary employment con-
tracts, in the event that the work is provided
personally, exclusively or primarily for the
same employer for more than nine consecutive
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