Greece

In the private sector in Greece, employers dismissed, transferred and downgraded unionised workers or used the threat of such measures against workers to discourage them from joining a union.

In Greece, violation of collective agreements were common, especially in the banking sector. Companies often refused to apply existing collective labour agreements. This behaviour was further compounded by the adoption of Law 4808/2021 of 19 June 2021, which provides that in case of challenge of a collective agreement before the courts, the collective agreement is suspended until a final court decision is issued. The law bears the risk of suspending the implementation of collective agreements for long periods of time, pending review by the judiciary, and thus depriving workers of the benefit of the negotiated provisions.