Filenews 28 February 2025 - by Angelos Angelodimou
The President of the Republic and the trade unions of the public and private sectors will be facing each other today, with the aim of clearly putting on the table the policy that the Government will follow on major labour issues.
The meeting with the President had been requested by the all-union meeting held on 27 January, on the occasion of the trade unions' position that the institutional framework governing social dialogue is suffering.
Therefore, in view of the fact that in 2025 major labour issues such as ATA, minimum wage, procedures for employing foreign workers from third countries and others should be on the table, government policy should be clarified and the framework for social dialogue should be set.
The meeting will take place at 10 a.m. at the Presidential Palace and is expected to be attended, next to the President, by the Minister of Labor and possibly the Minister of Finance. It is not clear whether caretaker technocrats will attend the meeting. On the other hand, representatives of the 11 trade unions that participated in the pan-trade union will participate. As we have been informed, they will go with a common agenda, which will include seven main issues:
The seven priorities
(1) The need to improve social dialogue. As they argue, the framework of the dialogue suffers and if it is not corrected, there will be problems in solving the major problems in 2025.
(2) The strategy for revising the recruitment process for third-country workers. Although the matter has been approved by the Cabinet, the trade unions will raise some points, with the aim of making changes.
(3) Tax reform. The trade unions note that there are several positive elements in the JIT's proposal, but measures need to be taken, mainly in the direction of providing incentives to the great mass of workers, who are already below tax-free income. Especially, in fact, after the imminent imposition of green taxation.
(4) The reform of the pension system is a major issue which requires special study and preparation and should address holistically the issues concerning this large capital.
(5) On the issue of ATA, the trade unions will make clear their position that they are not discussing any form of reform, but are calling for full restoration of its payment to 100% for all workers.
(6) The issue of the hourly rate of the minimum wage has not been abandoned by the trade unions and at the meeting with the President they will bring up the issue again with a view to the review at the end of the year.
(7) The extension of collective agreements, also on the basis of the relevant EU recommendation, will also be on the table at the meeting with the President.
- It is recalled that the unions argue that the growth of the economy in recent years is not sufficiently reflected in wages, while at the same time the profitability of businesses is constantly rising. Specifically, according to their data, over the last decade wages have been -4.1% relative to GDP, in contrast to business profitability, which stands at 8.2% relative to GDP.
