The initiative by Niki Kerameos<\/b> regarding collective bargaining agreements is recognized by Brussels as a European model for social dialogue and labor cooperation.<\/p>\n
From a laggard in collective bargaining to a source of inspiration for Europe. This is perhaps the most fitting description of the journey Greece has undertaken in just one year, managing to transform a long-standing weakness in the labor market into one of the most prominent examples of social dialogue at the European level.<\/b><\/p>\n
The joint event held in Brussels, attended by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis<\/b> and the leadership of theEuropean Commission, served as concrete recognition of a Greek initiative that, according to the European institutions themselves, could serve as a model for the future of collective bargaining throughout the European Union.<\/p>\nNothing Left to Chance<\/b><\/h3>\n
Even more impressive is the fact that none of this was taken for granted when the effort was launched by Minister of Labor<\/b>, Niki Kerameos. On the contrary, those familiar with the behind-the-scenes details of the negotiations describe an initiative with extremely limited chances of success. <\/p>\n
Although the Greek labor market was performing well<\/b>, with unemployment falling, employment rising, and wages on an upward trend, there was one indicator where the country continued to lag significantly: the coverage of workers by collective bargaining agreements.<\/p>\n
At that point, Niki Kerameos decided to take a different path from the\u2026 well-trodden one. Instead of opting for yet another legislative intervention, she set out to achieve a comprehensive agreement between the national social partners\u2014that is, the representatives of workers and employers. <\/p>\n
The idea\u2014to many at the time\u2014seemed almost impossible, as no such agreement had ever been reached in the past.<\/b><\/p>\n
However, the Minister of Labor felt that a rare atmosphere of trust and understanding had developed that was worth testing. Thus began a lengthy negotiation process, which lasted about eight months and took place under conditions of absolute confidentiality, so that the discussions could proceed without public pressure or media noise.<\/p>\n
Although expectations remained low, as time went on, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. In late November 2025, the National Social Agreement was announced; it was subsequently submitted to Parliament and passed within a few months. Most importantly, however, it immediately began to produce results. Specifically, collective bargaining agreements that had remained dormant for years were revived, new agreements were signed, and hundreds of thousands of workers saw increases in their wages and improvements in their working conditions.<\/b> The first contract extensions already cover approximately 400,000 workers<\/b>, while new agreements continue to be signed across various sectors of the economy.<\/p>\n
The icing on the cake came from Brussels. The European Commission decided to highlight the Greek experience, choosing for the first time to co-organize a related event with a member state in order to present a national reform as a best practice. <\/p>\n
Essentially, the landscape changed dramatically, as Greece\u2014which for years had been at the center of European discussions as an example of a problem\u2014suddenly found itself in the spotlight as an example of a solution.<\/p>\n
During the event, European officials emphasized that until recently, our country ranked among the lowest in Europe in the area of collective bargaining, while today it is emerging as a source of inspiration for the other member states. It is telling that\u2014despite the fact that the event took place on a weekday\u2014the hall was packed to capacity. <\/b><\/p>\n
Many of them had no direct connection to Greece, but wanted to understand how a country that, just a few years ago, was on the periphery of European developments managed to take a leading role in such a critical discussion about the future of labor.<\/p>\n
For the government, and personally for Niki Kerameos, who has staked her political capital on this effort, the message from Brussels is of particular importance. <\/b>This is because, beyond the new collective bargaining agreements, wage increases, and positive outcomes in the labor market, what has been recognized at the European level is that Greece has managed to achieve something that, until a year ago, seemed almost impossible: namely, to transform a long-standing weakness into a European model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Niki Kerameos\u2019s initiative on collective bargaining agreements is recognized by Brussels as a European model for social dialogue and labor relations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}