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Greece has had no tradition of board-level representation for employees in their companies. Historically the country’s industrial relations system was characterised by adversarial attitudes between capital and labour while governments were not interested in encouraging the advance of worker participation in companies through the use of the law. Moreover, the Greek economy was dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises in the private sector and such firms displayed no interest in establishing forms of corporate governance that they believed were irrelevant to their business operations.
However, after 1981 when PASOK the Socialist party was elected into government, legislation was passed that provided for direct board-level representation for workers who were employed in state-controlled and public sector utility companies and in former private firms that were brought into state ownership. Under its provisions a labour supervisory council was established for each of the enterprises involved. This was made up of 27 members of which nine represented the employees, nine the government and the remaining nine came from other stakeholders such as local councils, technical and economic chambers and various public bodies.
The law was modernised in 1996 to establish a more flexible form of boardroom representation. Under this reform company employees were entitled to two elected representatives on the boards of the state-owned companies. These worker directors are elected through a general ballot. Only employees are eligible. The employee board members have the same rights and duties as the other board members.
However, in the late 1990s Greece started to move parts of its public sector into private ownership, mainly through the development of joint private-public enterprises. These developments have inevitably undermined the board-level representation of workers that was always confined to the public sector. Such worker participation is now confined to those enterprises that are still under the majority control of the state. These are e.g. the companies that own the electricity system and the postal services and the national bank.
But the country’s industrial structure of small firms and a substantial number of self-employed workers has ensured that even works councils, enterprise unions and other forms of employee representation below company board level remain under-developed.
source: Robert Taylor (2004) in ETUI and Hans Böckler Foundation, The European Company - Prospects for board-level representation
DOCUMENTS: - BRIEF OVERVIEW: Company law and existing legislative provision for employee participation in Greece (by A. Büggel).
(pdf)
 COUNTRY REPORT GREECE: Workers' participation at board level
(by Christos A. Ioannou)
prepared within the project "Prospects for participation and co-determination under the European Company Statute" - more about this project
download country report (pdf, 166 kb) download whole report (pdf, 1.3 MB)
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(3) Transposition process
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Second Update: Transposition of SE Legislation in Greece - latest developments (November 2005) [Documents]
by Dr Christos A. Ioannou (CIRN, Athens University of Economics and Business)
The SE Regulation and Directive transposition process has reached its final stage in Greece. Last week (25 October 2005) the Greek Parliament adopted the Law which transposes the provisions of the SE Regulation. This was necessary in order first to provide the framework for the dualistic system of corporate governance (management board and separate supervisory board), and second to extend the application of national legislation on limited companies to the new SEs.
The door is now open for transposition of the SE Directive. Transposition will take the form of a Presidential Decree. The Decree has been drafted and is currently under legal consideration by the Ministry of Employment and the Research Committee of the Greek Parliament. This means that the process may be concluded well before the end of 2005.
The acceleration of the process has helped to boost the national debate on the issue. The social partners have participated in parliamentary committees for “transposition” of the Regulation and in working groups on the drafting of the Presidential Decree transposing the SE Directive.
In this context the OKE – the Economic and Social Council (www.oke.gr) – issued an opinion on the SE.
To promote the national debate on the SE and discuss its industrial relations implications, CIRN (Center for Industrial Relations and Negotiations) at Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) will organise an international seminar, planned for 12–14 July 2005 in Athens.
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Update: Transposition of SE Legislation in Greece -latest developments (March 2005)
by Dr. Christos A. Ioannou (CIRN, Athens University of Economics and Business)
Transposition of SE legislation in Greece – latest developments, March 2005
One year after the March 2004 Greek general election and the change of government there have not been many significant developments or much progress concerning transposition of the SE Directive. Progress consists mainly in the formation of a working committee with the task of drafting the transposition text.
With a view to establishing what progress had been made and to elicit the government’s intentions on the issue a parliamentary question was submitted in late January by PASOK MP Mr Protopapas. The question was addressed to the Minister of Employment and referred to progress and plans to transpose the SE Directive.
In mid February the Minister of Employment replied concerning the current situation and plans for transposing the SE Directive.
According to the Ministry of Employment the topic is under consideration by three Ministries, namely Employment, the Economy and Development.
A committee has been formed at the Ministry of Employment which is working on a draft Presidential Decree concerning transposition of the Directive. The committee is chaired by a member of the State Legal Council (Elegktikon Synedrio), and includes representatives of the three Ministries, as well as of the social partners.
The committee is drafting the Presidential Decree article by article and is expected to complete the preparatory work soon, the Minister said. The Minister of Employment attributes the delay in transposition to delays affecting the Committee.
It therefore remains unclear when transposition will take place. New reporting will focus on the contents of the draft Presidential Decree when it reaches its final stages.
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Transposition of SE Legislation in Greece
The 7 March 2004 elections and the change of government led to a reorganisation of legislative work in the Greek parliament.
Although some preparatory work had been done on transposition of the SE Regulation and Directive, the issue was given low priority and the official legislative process has not yet begun.
It has become clear that transposition of the Regulation on the SE must take the form of a new law: a presidential decree will not suffice. The main reason for this is that it would also affect existing legislation on "limited companies", as governed by Law 2190 of 1920, a law that is clearly in need of modernisation.
With the new government it is unclear whether transposition will take place on time (that is, 8 October 2004). No formal committee has yet been formed for drafting and consultation in relation to the SE.
My research among ministries and the social partners reached the conclusion that awareness remains low and that SE transposition is not considered a priority or even a topic of interest.
With a view to increasing awareness and stimulating more interest, I have given a number of lectures and published an article in a major economic journal (Imerissia, 1 August 2004) concerning the characteristics of the SE and the importance of transposing the regulation and the directive.
by Dr. Christos A. Ioannou (CIRN, Athens University of Economics and Business)
Documents:
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(5) Other relevant information (Info-Box)
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