Work: Without collective agreements the workers in Greece

The impact of collective bargaining agreements on the increases granted to workers in the private sector remains limited.

This has a direct negative effect on workers’ wages, which essentially remain frozen with the exception of the minimum wage, which, however, also rises with the “dropper”.

Workers without collective labor agreements have nothing to look forward to. Neither an increase in wages through collective bargaining, nor an improvement in the institutional rules and conditions of employment.

Simply put, the situation is tragic.

The data available to the Ministry of Labor, through the Ergani system and analyzed by the Bank of Greece (BoG), show that the vast majority of salaried employees (more than 73%) are not covered by collective agreements.

Only 740,000 employees (out of a total of 2,419,200 employed in the private sector) are under the umbrella of some form of collective agreement (sectoral, homoprofessional and operational).

The details of the Bank of Greece

In more detail, according to the official data of the Bank of Greece, the main sectoral or same-occupational labor contracts that affected wages in 2023 were the following:

The three-year contract for banks (signed in April 2022) foresees increases of 2% from 1.10.2022, another 1% from 1.12.2023 and a further 2.5% from 1.12.2024.

The two-year hotel contract (signed in December 2022 and covering around 120,000 workers) with increases of 5.5% from 1.1.2023 and 5% from 1.1.2024.

The tobacco deal (signed in April 2023) with increases of 4%-6.8% for the entire 2023-2024 biennium.

The two-year contract of food (food and drink – signed in June 2023 and concerns about 400,000 employees) with increases of 5.5% from 1.6.2023 and 5% from 1.6.2024.

The cement industry’s two-year contract (signed in December 2023) with increases of 5% from 1.1.2023, 5% from 1.4.2023 and 4% from 1.1.2024 (no increases were given in 2021 and 2022).