In a country like Greece, where the rate of unemployment is nearly 30%, where working relations have collapsed, where collective labor agreements are suspended or abolished, it is peculiar that the troika is insistent on collective redundancies.
Even if we were to accept that there are problems in the current system, it is absurd to make the abolition of every protection offered to employees into a central negotiation issue.
The problem in working relations today is not the many rights and protection offered to employees, but rather the abolition of even the most essential of rights, as established by international agreements and the regulations of the European Union itself.
When under the current legislation, if a business employs more than 159 people – and we don’t have that many businesses – it can make 30 or 40% of its staff redundant over six months, it is absurd to consider such a reform necessary.
Unless, of course, the rumors are true that a few businesses, with foreign interests, in sectors that have truly suffered from the crisis, have found a way to modernize and restructure at the lowest possible cost, by pressuring the troika.
The Greek economy’s problem is not the redundancies or minimum wage – since wages in the 500 to 600 euros region became the norm – but rather recovery and the creation of new jobs. The troika’s persistence on plans that entail the complete deregulation of working relations as the key to returning to growth is dangerous and futile.
The private sector of the economy and the people working in it have bared the brunt of the crisis and cannot endure any further experiments or demolitions. Ultimately, the foundation of the united Europe was greatly based on establishing and protecting social and employment rights.
If we were to demolish everything today at the request of the troika, what Europe will the people be called upon to vote for tomorrow?
TO VIMA
