Greek public service employment relations: A Gordian knot in the era of sovereign default

Ioannou, Christos A.

doi:10.1177/0959680113505032

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The first MoU had a twofold aim: to avoid the contagion through fiscal consolidation and restore the competitiveness through structural reforms. Fiscal consolidation was pursued by enforcing massive cuts in the public sector's labour costs, making Greece the most dramatic case of public sector retrenchment in the EU and among OECD countries (Ioannou, 2013). Experts from the board of the Greek teachers' confederation highlighted that the wage and benefit cuts reached cumulatively 40 per cent of their income, generating a shock.…”

Section: The Chronology Of the Deregulation Of The Greek Labour Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impact of liberalisation policies on the Greek labour market: an insider–experts' view from the perspective of the varieties of liberalisation

Tourtouri

Pavlopoulos

Papatheodorou

2020

Industrial Relations Journal

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During the recent Great Recession (2008-2018), Greece has become the prototype example of the implementation of austerity policies in Europe. Contrary to public discourse, these austerity policies were complemented by substantial labour market reforms that promoted employment and wage flexibility. This article aims to present a theory-driven understanding of the implementation and the effects of these reforms. For this purpose, we employ a qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with 50 labour market experts-government officials and labour lawyers, academics, labour union representatives and employer association representatives. Using Thelen's framework on the Varieties of Liberalization, we conclude that, contrary to the initial aims of the reforms, Greece followed a trajectory of direct deregulation, reducing considerably the level of both coordination between employers and workers, and coverage of employment protection. The interviews show that the dismantling of collective bargaining system was the most decisive move in this path.

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Section: The Chronology Of the Deregulation Of The Greek Labour Marketmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the impact of liberalisation policies on the Greek labour market: an insider–experts' view from the perspective of the varieties of liberalisation

Tourtouri

Pavlopoulos

Papatheodorou

2020

Industrial Relations Journal

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“…As a result of the sovereign debt crisis that gripped the EU from 2010, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland and Portugal received EU-IMF emergency loans that were conditional on the implementation of radical neoliberal programmes, with deleterious socio-economic effects (Blyth, 2013). Public cuts depressed aggregate demand and constricted the public sector, while in Cyprus, Greece and Portugal the liberalization of dismissal protection and collective bargaining reform made the position of employees more precarious (Ioannou, 2013; Stoleroff, 2013). Only Ireland, an Anglo-Saxon country in which the labour market was traditionally subject to low levels of regulation and the crisis was primarily a banking one, was spared wholesale industrial relations reform.…”

Section: The Crisis: Towards a European Insider–outsider Divide?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Insiders and outsiders on a European scale

Prosser

2016

European Journal of Industrial Relations

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There is evidence of an emerging Europe-wide ‘insider–outsider’ divide. In parallel to the patterns of dualization within national industrial relations systems, ‘core’ European countries retain relatively low unemployment and contractual security, while ‘peripheral’ countries are increasingly marked by high levels of unemployment and contractual insecurity. I contend that such a system is in the interests of insiders in core countries. As a consequence of the capacity of bargaining regimes in core countries to achieve superior competitiveness, and the tendency for workers in these countries to be relatively indifferent to austerity, divergent outcomes result within the eurozone. In conclusion, I reflect on implications for dualization theory and EU cohesion.

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“…Under pressure to reduce its public expenditure, in 2010 the Greek state unilaterally adopted an array of measures that have impinged on all areas of policy, including in the labour market (see Tzannatos and Monogios, 2013;Ioannou, 2013). With a series of laws voted in that year, the government introduced numerous public pay cuts 2 which had an average effect of about 12% (NBG, 2010).…”

Section: A Brief Outline Of the Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

Public-private wage duality during the Greek crisis

Christopoulou

Monastiriotis

2015

Oxf. Econ. Pap.

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During the recent crisis, Greece experienced a severe contraction and rapid transformation in its labour relations and pay-setting system in both the private and public sectors. Although the quantity (employment) adjustments that followed have been well documented, the changes that were triggered in the wage structures of the two sectors remain largely unexplored. In this paper we examine these changes using Greek Labour Force Survey micro-data. We find a differential adjustment across sectors in terms of magnitude, timing, and structure. Despite general perceptions, adjustment in public sector wages has been slow and limited, with pre-crisis premia persisting throughout the period. Instead, the private sector recorded substantial adjustment, changing noticeably its valuation of worker and job characteristics and emerging from the crisis with a structure of returns that rewards more intensively marketable skills. This may be an important feature in the prospective recovery of the Greek economy.JEL Codes: J31, J45, J58, C31, C34, H12

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Greek public service employment relations: A Gordian knot in the era of sovereign default

Cited by 22 publications

References 22 publications

Assessing the impact of liberalisation policies on the Greek labour market: an insider–experts' view from the perspective of the varieties of liberalisation

Assessing the impact of liberalisation policies on the Greek labour market: an insider–experts' view from the perspective of the varieties of liberalisation

Insiders and outsiders on a European scale

Public-private wage duality during the Greek crisis

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