Greece: after eight years in economic crisis, Alexis Tsipras seeks to restore labor law

On 20 August 2018, Greece’s third and last EU bailout plan that was signed in 2015 after difficult negotiations between Athens and its creditors (EU, ECB, IMF) finally came to a close. PM Alexis Tsipras now wants to take advantage of the end of this framework to restore the country’s labor law that has been shelved for eight years. On Monday 03 September the Greek Labor Minister proceeded to extend four recently concluded collective agreements and as such signaled a return to sector-wide negotiations.
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During the first Council of Ministers meeting held after Greece was formally freed from its final bailout framework on 20 August, PM Alexis Tspiras recalled that “his first priority was to regularize the labor market,” “combat the black labor market”, and “raise the minimum wage”. “Decent wage levels and working conditions must be restored,” the PM declared during the week of 27 August. Over the period during which Greece operated under three successive European bailout plans and eight years of

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