Greek Labor Minister Efi Ahtsioglou on Thursday from Brussels more-or-less confirmed what press reports out of Athens have been stating for months now, namely, that creditors remain opposed to the leftist government’s insistence on re-instituting mandatory sector-wide collective bargaining talks between social partners in the recession-battered country.
Ahtsioglou, 31, who took over from previous minister Giorgos Katrougalos last month after a Cabinet reshuffle, made the statement after attending a summit of EU member-states’ ministers who hold the labor and social policy portfolios.
In echoing the government’s leitmotif over collective bargaining, the Greek minister said the framework, which was suspended during the ongoing economic crisis, comprises a basic tenet of the Union’s European Pillar of Social Rights.
“Our government has emphasized the need for a return of collective bargaining negotiations in Greece,” a position she maintained is supported by the Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and various national social partners around the EU.
