Collective Labour Agreements: More Workers, Full Protection — Room for Wage Increases
Wages, working hours and leave are among the main terms defined by Collective Labour Agreements (CLAs) in Greece. These agreements benefit both employees and employers.
After seven months of consultations — and for the first time — the Government and the National Social Partners have signed a Social Agreement introducing new rules for employment. The main change is that far more workers will be covered by Collective Labour Agreements.
Benefits for workers - CLAs allow for wage and benefit increases, and provide a stable, secure and predictable work environment. - Reduced uncertainty about changes to employment terms reduces stress.
Benefits for businesses - According to Labour Minister Niki Kerameos, the agreement creates a framework of clear rules without continual, open negotiations, which facilitates growth and helps fight unfair competition. - Kerameos described the deal as “a historic agreement” not only because a Government-wide pact with all National Social Partners of this scope has not happened before in Greece, but because it builds cooperation that provides stability, security and clear rules and marks the start of a new era for Collective Labour Agreements in the country.
What a CLA is - A Collective Labour Agreement is signed by workers’ organisations and employers’ organisations (or an employer) and sets core employment terms (for example wages, hours and leave) for members of the signatory organisations.
Key point: extension of CLAs to entire sectors - A CLA can be sectoral or for a specific occupation and normally covers employees in that sector or occupation who are members of the trade union organisation that signed it and employers who are members of the employer organisation that signed it. - The crucial change for social partners is that a CLA can be extended to cover the whole sector or occupation it concerns, including workers and employers who are not members of the signatory organisations. This ensures broader coverage by CLAs, strengthens healthy competition among firms in the same sector and is implemented by decision of the Minister of Labour if the legal conditions are met.
Main axes of the agreement
1) Easier extension of Collective Labour Agreements so many more workers are protected - The required coverage threshold to extend a CLA is reduced from 50% to 40%. - A new facility: the 40% quantitative criterion will not be examined at all when the CLA is co-signed by the National Social Partners. - The General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) may conclude or co-sign sectoral CLAs on an ancillary basis if invited by a member to do so, to apply the new extension possibility. - Procedures for registering organisations in the operating registries (ΓΕΜΗΣΟΕ and ΓΕΜΗΟΕ) will be simplified to encourage registration and enable extension of CLAs more easily.
Details implemented to support extension - Reduce required information for registration to the essentials. - Mitigate sanctions for non-registration — trade union rights will not be suspended as a penalty. - Registration of a trade union organisation is required only for CLA extension and access to OMΕD (the mediation/arbitration body). - Election documents will be submitted by trade unions to the Court of First Instance (Πρωτοδικείο) rather than to the Registry.
2) Full protection of workers after a CLA expires - The agreement strengthens workplace stability and security by preserving employees’ rights in full until a new collective or individual contract is concluded. - All terms of a CLA continue to apply after its expiry. Initially, a three-month extension in effect is provided. - After the three-month period, all terms of the CLA continue to apply until a new collective or individual contract is agreed — restoring full post-expiry application (full “metenergía”). - The memorandum-era partial post-expiry rule in force since 2012 (N. 4046/2012, PYS 6/2012) is abolished and the pre-memorandum regime of full continuation is reinstated. - Employees hired during the three-month extension are also covered by the CLA.
3) Faster procedures for resolving disputes between workers and employers - Better and faster procedures for dispute resolution through OMΕD are introduced. - A pre-check mechanism for unilateral recourse to mediation and arbitration will be set up: a three-member committee at OMΕD will examine strictly whether the legal prerequisites for unilateral referral are met. - Members of the Pre-check Committee: one professor of labour law (Law School), one professor of economics and one supreme-court judge. They will be appointed by fixed term by OMΕD’s Board. - The second-instance arbitration level at OMΕD is abolished to speed up dispute resolution, while retaining the possibility to challenge arbitration decisions in court.
Next steps - Two immediate next steps: 1) issuance of an Action Plan (within December) that will include the Social Agreement, and 2) legislation to enact the Social Agreement in early 2026.
References - The agreement abolishes the partial post-expiry rule established by Law N. 4046/2012 and PYS 6/2012, restoring the previous full post-expiry protection.
