By S. Papapetros
Greek lender Alpha Bank and officials from the bank’s employee association on Tuesday announced a new work contract between the two sides for the next three years.
Highlights of the new Alpha Bank-specific contract are job security and an avoidance of redundancies; a wage freeze, in both directions; participation of employees’ representatives in the bank’s departmental councils and increased child care benefits for current staff.
Alpha Bank, one of four systemic banks in the country, has 10,000 people on its pay roll.
Increasing reliance on company-wide contracts instead of sector-wide collective bargaining between employers’ representatives and professional trade unionists is now the norm in the banking sector, especially after the economic crisis decimated banks’ spread sheets since 2009.
