The IMF, one of four sides comprising the “Quartet” of Greece’s institutional creditors, is apparently insisting on its demand for a complete liberalization of the framework governing mass layoffs in the country.
The D.C.-based Fund has long expressed its criticism of a provision in Greece’s labor law prohibiting a large company from laying-off more than 5 percent of its workforce, per month, without the written approval from the relevant labor minister.
Ministry sources circulated the development in Athens after the end of a four-hour meeting on employment sector reforms, held between creditors’ top representatives and the new Greek labor minister, Efi Ahtsioglou.
Collective bargaining between employers’ federations and labor unions, which the leftist government desperately wants to revive, was also discussed, according to the state-run news agency.
Creditors have pointed out that troubled companies cannot proceed with restructuring given the prohibition against mass lay-offs, even in situations where workers are made redundant in order to be hired the next day under less favorable terms, but as part of an effort to keep a business afloat. The “political capital” entailed in any minister signing off on such as prospect makes getting a "green light" for mass layoffs under the current regime almost impossible.
On its part, the current government has insisted on implementing European “best practices” in terms of labor law and rules.
