The Federation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants Magnesia notify the press release of the General Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants on: “To restore free collective bargaining and the validity of social dialogue.”
O Social dialogue and especially the restoration of free collective bargaining constitutes a developmental and structural prerequisite condition for the recovery of the Greek economy.
Besides the social dialogue between employers and employees is a central feature of the European social model and recognized institution consulted by the European Union Treaty and validated by the country International Labor Conventions. Especially in a time of crisis like this that we experience, international experience has shown that social dialogue can contribute to the formulation of creative and innovative responses and to promote a more balanced and recovery without discrimination.
In recent years, the policy pursued aimed at inactivating the social dialogue and the de facto abolition of collective bargaining as a condition of development. According to this view, social dialogue and the active contribution of the social partners in this process are treated as an obstacle to the deregulation of the market, the decline in labor costs and ultimately create cheap labor. Cheap labor and the absence of ‘intermediate’ collectives are, according to this reasoning, basic prerequisites shaping an environment conducive to attracting foreign investment. However no such result is not reached. Instead multiple interventions of the state collective bargaining system, such as the intervention in the content and the universality of the National General Collective Labor Agreement, the weakening of sectoral bargaining level and the expansion of institutions of the effects (expansion), are reasons for the dramatic changes suffered by the real economy in Greece. The collapse of collective bargaining which dragged the overall wage level had a direct impact on disposable income, domestic consumption and ultimately to an increase in unemployment. At the same time creates conditions of unfair competition with negative effects, especially for the most healthy companies.
For GSEBEE restoring free collective bargaining is a matter of priority and a necessary prerequisite for the development of the economy, smoothness in the labor market and preserving social cohesion.