The
International and European Trade Union Confederations called on the
International Monetary Fund to stop insisting that Greece undertake
even more pension cuts and labour market deregulation before the Fund
will agree to a new loan programme, or to signing off on
disbursements by European institutions.
An IMF
spokesperson stated last Thursday that the IMF is seeking “in
particular, pension and labour reforms” as conditions for
extending financial assistance to Greece. Greek workers have already
suffered a severe reduction in their living standards. The austerity
and deregulation measures demanded by the creditor institutions since
2010 have included reductions in minimum wages, pensions and the
scope of collective bargaining.
ITUC General
Secretary Sharan Burrow said “Greek workers have borne almost
all the costs of the crisis that began in 2008: wages have fallen,
pensions have been slashed and a quarter of the workforce remains
unemployed. The ILO issued a major study last year showing that
collective bargaining coverage in Greece fell from 70 per cent before
the crisis to 10 per cent in 2015. Continuing to diminish workers’
collective rights will do nothing to put Greece on the path to
economic recovery, but it will reinforce the alarming trend of
growing inequality in the country.”
Luca
Visentini, General Secretary of the ETUC, said that the latest
attempt by the IMF to further diminish workers’ rights in Greece
constitutes an attack on the European social model: “Workers and
employers, 95% of which are microenterprises, need collective
bargaining at sectoral level and do not need collective dismissals.
The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has
already sent a letter to Prime Minister Tsipras, clearly stating that
collective bargaining and the right to strike are national matters,
to be settled by social partners with government support, and that
the Commission will not intervene on these matters in Greece. We want
the IMF to show the same respect for Greek workers and companies,
instead of imposing so-called ‘reforms’ which would further
damage Greece’s economy and social cohesion.”
The OECD has
published data showing that, after the deregulation that took place
under a previous government, employment protection rules in Greece
are already weaker than in the four Nordic countries, Germany, the
Netherlands and several other EU countries.
The General
Secretaries of the ITUC and ETUC expressed their solidarity with the
Greek trade union confederation GSEE and urged the Greek government
and its European counterparts to defend Greek workers’ rights
against the IMF’s latest demands.
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