Greece, EPSU Collective Bargaining News

The ADEDY civil service and GSEE private sector trade union confederations have called a 24-hour general strike on 16 July in protest at cuts in public sector jobs demanded by the Troika - the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. The planned strike follows two days of industrial action by municipal workers also protesting about the implication for their jobs of the labour reserve and mobility scheme being implemented in the public sector. [Read more at > ADEDY (GR)->http://www.adedy.gr/adedy/site/home/ws.csp] [And at > ekatherimini news website (EN)->http

The member organisations of the ADEDY civil service confederation will be taking part in a week of action and a two-day strike against the latest austerity measures being imposed on the public sector. The health sector is under particular pressure following a 25% budget cut in the last two years while some 25000 civil servants are being put into a relocation pool on reduced pay while waiting to find out if they will be relocated or finally dismissed. A further 4000 are set to lose their jobs by the end of the year. [Read more at > ADEDY (GR)->http://www.adedy.gr/adedy/site/home/ws.csp] [And at

The International Labour Organisation has issued a report critical of the attacks on trade union and collective bargaining rights. In response to complaints bought by the ADEDY civil service confederation, GSEE private sector confederation and GENOP-DEI power sector trade union, it concluded: "While deeply aware that these measures were taken within a context qualified as grave and exceptional, provoked by a financial and economic crisis, the Committee found that there were a number of repeated and extensive interventions into free and voluntary collective bargaining and an important deficit

The ADEDY public sector confederation organised a 24-hour strike on 19 December in its latest protest at austerity measures. It argues that the cuts in public sector are so deep that it can no longer operate effectively and deliver services to citizens. It is difficult to keep up with the "reforms" being imposed on public sector workers but this article by the EIRO industrial relations observatory reviews some of the main cuts and freezes on pay and recruitment. There is a new public sector pay structure, a weakening of the role of trade unions and restructuring of public sector organisations

The ADEDY and GSEE public and private sector trade union confederations have called a general strike for 20 February in protest at the continuing pressure for cuts coming from the Troika of European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Civil servants are the target of next round of cuts with the Troika wanting to see 25000 dismissed or transferred to other areas. Trade unions have also reacted angrily to the government's actions to prevent transport workers from taking strike action and the GENOP energy union took 24-hour strike action on 31 January in protest at