Aliki Mouriki
During the 1990s, tripartite collective bargaining produced as many as 25 agreements between
the social partners, covering a wide range of issues, from wage moderation, to internal and external
flexibility and welfare reforms. However, according to Royo (2007), while contractual and legislative
changes provided greater flexibility to employers and weakened labour, they have not led to a deregu-
lation of the industrial relations system, as unions managed to exploit international constraints and
the firms’ determination to avoid conflictual relations with labour, so as to retain their position in
the concertation process. This trend towards greater coordination and centralisation (despite union
fragmentation and the absence of a centralised wage setting system) point to a distinct form of neo-
corporatism, ‘competitive corporatism’48, characterised by pacts among weaker organisations with
governments acting as the instigator.
Greece, despite the transformation process triggered off in the 1980s when the socialists came
into power, has been unable to establish fully functioning consensus institutions that would facilitate
the synthesis of different and often opposing views and thus allow national policies to successfully
adjust to the country’s external environment. Deeply entrenched political exchange relationships with
the state, internal fragmentation and conflict of interests within both organised business associations
and trade unions, makes them hesitant to fully engage in the social dialogue process and develop a
common approach.
Business interest associations in Greece are still differentiated not only according to the type of
business activity and the size of firms, but also along political party affiliations. The participation
of Greek business interest associations in the European institutions, however, has reinforced their
bargaining power and autonomy vis-à-vis the Greek state, whilst it opened up new opportunities
for domestic action, through their institutionalized access to public policy within the framework of
corporatist bodies.49 As for unions, they are primarily plagued by political cleavages and antagonisms.
Despite the introduction of social dialogue institutions and other initiatives since the early 1990s, the
politicisation of unions and their reliance on state intervention and political exchange have not in the
least weakened over the years. This politicisation, compounded by antagonism between factions and
the lack of political consensus over reforms, undermines social concertation (Zambarloukou, 2006)
48 This term is used by Rhodes, 1998 mentioned in Royo, 2007.
49 This rise of organized business in Greece has been described as an “artificial neo-corporatism”, owing to the fact that
it was not caused by a genuine, endogenous development, but rather by a bottom-down process, unleashed by the
growing requirements for macro governance in the wake of European integration (Aranitou, 2002).
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