BACKGROUND OF THE TRANSFER OF DIRECTIVE 2009/38 ON THE EWCs INTO GREEK LAW

Around two years ago, the Ministry of Labour has established a committee to prepare the draft of the transposition of Directive 2009/38 into national law.

Very early, on 26/4/2010, OBES released and sent to the Greek Workers’ Confederation (GSEE) draft positions on the transfer of the new directive into Greek law but these were not taken into account in the final draft of the PD as shown the minutes of the committee.

Once OBES received from GSEE the final draft text of the new PD, it has sent to multiple recipients (GSEE, trade unionists, etc.) analytical draft of its positions by e-mail on the 27/12/2010, in order that they can study them and have an exchange of opinions. One has to note that the draft text of the new PD contained numerous anti-labour provisions.

Furthermore, OBES asked GSEE to intervene to the Ministry of Labour for this reason, which was done through a letter of GSEE to the Minister of Labour Ms Katseli dated 11/1/2011. Furthermore, the first edition of these positions was sent by OBES to the Minister of Labour Ms Katseli on the 28/1/2011. These positions were improved, and OBES forwarded the second edition of these positions to the General Secretary of the Ministry of Labour Ms Stratinaki on the 12/4/2011, during a meeting held in her Bureau. Ms. Stratinaki, opted for a transposition Law instead of a presidential decree. This solution was also chosen by the majority of European Union member-states, as shown in the table issued by the European Commission containing all the laws transposing this Directive in each EU member state up to 31/08/2011. This table is available in:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=6888&langId=en

The positions of OBES have also been sent to the Minister of Labour Mr Koutroumanis and to the hierarchy of the Ministry of Labour on 12.7.2011 (second edition) as well as on 07.11.2011 (third edition).

The third edition of positions was improved comparing with previous versions, following the round table meeting on EWCs with the participation of trade unionists coming from trade unions and local Labour Centres, which was organised by the OBES on the 19/9/2011.

The current fourth edition of positions was prepared at the beginning of October 2011 following the announcement of the draft Law by the Ministry of Labour. The draft Law contained significant improvements if compared with the draft PD, so observations of OBES were adjusted accordingly.

Finally, most of OBES observations that were included in the fourth edition of OBES positions were included also in the final law Ν.4052/12 passed in Parliament (Articles 49-76) in early March 2012.

All the above documents are available in www.obes.gr