INTERNATIONAL LABOUR

OFFICE

LABOUR PROBLEMS
IN GREECE
Report of the Mission of the International Labour Office to Greece

(October-November 1947)

GENEVA
International Labour Office
1949

STUDIES AND REPORTS
New Series, No. 12

P U B L I S H E D B Y THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
GENEVA,

OFFICE

SWITZERLAND

Published in the United Kingdom for the INTEENATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
by Staples Press Limited, London

PRINTED BY "JOURNAL DE G E N È V E " , GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

PREFACE
In June 1947 the International Labour Office received an
invitation from the Government of Greece to undertake a full
examination of the Greek labour laws and to make recommendations to the Government for their revision. The invitation
was conveyed in the following telegram from Mr. Tsaldaris,
Deputy Prime Minister of Greece :
The Royal Hellenic Government conscious of the need of reviewing and revising the labour legislation of Greece including
that which regulates trade unions and recognising the impartiality and technical competence of the International Labour Office
invites the International Labour Office to undertake a full examination of the Greek labour laws and to make recommendations
to the Royal Hellenic Government for their revision. I have the
honour therefore on behalf of the Royal Hellenic Government to
convey to the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
for its immediate consideration this invitation which has the
support of all elements of the Greek trade union movement.
The Director-General of the International Labour Office
replied to the telegram in the following terms :
Have honour acknowledge receipt your telegram inviting International Labour Office undertake examination Greek labour laws and
make recommendations Royal Hellenic Government for their revision.
International Labour Organisation glad afford all assistance in its
power. Will submit precise proposals to Governing Body which meets
this week and will inform you Govbodys decision soonest possible.
The Director-General's acceptance of this invitation was
approved by the Governing Body (102nd Session, Geneva,
June-July 1947), and the Governing Body also endorsed proposals made by the Director-General for giving effect to the
request of the Greek Government. These proposals involved
the appointment of a working party to make a careful study
and analysis of the Greek laws and to visit Greece in order to
supplement its documentary study by actual contacts on the
spot with Government departments, employers' organisations
and trade unions. After visiting Greece, the working party
was to return to Geneva and draft its report. The Governing
Body authorised the Director-General to organise this work of
technical assistance to the Greek Government on the lines

IV

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

suggested and agreed to the grant of a supplementary credit
to cover the travelling and subsistence expenses of the working
party and the engagement of temporary staff for the translation
and typing of the Greek labour laws. The Governing Body's
decision was conveyed to the Royal Hellenic Government and
arrangements were made with the Government for the working
party to proceed to Greece in due course.
The present Report describes the investigations carried out
by the Mission and embodies the recommendations made by
the International Labour Office as a result of this examination
of the problems involved.
A draft of the Report was submitted to the Greek Government in March 1948 in order that the Government might have
an opportunity of expressing its views before the Report was
published. The draft was carefully studied by the various
departments concerned, and the Government's observations
were forwarded to the International Labour Office in November
1948. After having examined these observations the Office made
a few corrections of fact, but left the substance of the Report
unchanged. The Office feels that it would hardly be possible
to prepare a report which would reflect the conclusions formed
by the Mission and, at the same time, give full satisfaction to
the Greek Government and to the employers' and workers'
organisations in Greece. It has therefore preferred to leave the
Mission's Report as it stands and to print the observations of the
Greek Government in full as an appendix. 1
It has also been thought advisable to include the report of the
Supervisory Committee of the Ninth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union
Congress, which was held some months after the Mission's visit
to Greece.2

1
2

See Appendix I.
See Appendix II.

CONTENTS
Page
PREFACE

in

CHAPTER I. Introduction

1

Contact with t h e Ministry of Labour
Tripartite Committee
Discussions in Greece
Visits in Greece
Guiding Considerations
General Observations

2
3
5
9
11
15

CHAPTER I I . The Political and Economic Setting

18

The Political Situation
The Economic Situation
Economic Structure
National Income and Population
Effects of t h e W a r and t h e Occupation
The Greek Economy Today
Progress of Economic Recovery
The Currency Problem
Prices and Wages
Foreign Trade and t h e Balance of Payments
CHAPTER I I I . Employment

. .

49

The Employment Situation
Employment Planning
Planned Emigration
Organisation of Employment
Termination of Contract
The Contract of Employment for Special Categories of Persons
Additional Controls on t h e Employment Market
Vocational Training

49
53
54
61
67
70
72
73

CHAPTER IV. Conditions
and their Enforcement

and Employment

18
23
23
27
28
30
31
34
37
45

of Employment

Organisation

— The

General Characteristics of Labour Legislation
Development
Scope
Structure
Consolidation and Revision

Regulations
80
80
80
82
86
87

VI

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE
Page

General Characteristics of Labour Inspection
Structure of Services and Distribution of Functions
. .
Mines Inspection Services
Technical and General Services of the Labour Inspectorate
Administrative Co-ordination
Status of Labour Inspection Staff
Duties and Resources of the Labour Inspectorate . . . .
Duties
Personnel Available
Material Resources
Necessary Readjustments

89
89
90
91
92
94
98
98
102
104
105

Problems connected with Conditions of Employment . . . .
Hours of Work and Rest Periods
Hours of Work in Industry
Breaks for Rest during the Working Day
Hours of Work in Shops and Offices
The Weekly Rest
Holidays with Pay
Industrial Health and Safety
HomeWork
Employment of Children and Young Persons
Admission to Employment
Protection of Young Workers

109
109
109
112
114
115
116
120
125
129
130
137

Employment of Women

139

Special Categories of Workers
Dockers
Railwaymen
Seamen

140
141
145
147

CHAPTER

V. Social Insurance

Social Insurance Institutions
Benefits
Sickness Insurance
Pension Insurance
Tuberculosis Benefits
Unemployment Insurance
Resources
Rates of Contribution
Social Taxes
Administration
Finance
Fundamental Problems

CHAPTER

VI. The Trade Union Situation

Legal Status of Occupational Organisations
Constitutional Guarantee of Freedom of Association . . .

153
153
157
158
163
171
173
177
178
182
184
188
192

208
209
209

CONTENTS

VII
Page

Legal Regulation of Trade Union Rights
Constitution of Occupational Organisations
Recognition of Occupational Organisations
Regulation of Internal Activities of Occupational
Organisations
Administration of Occupational Organisations . . . .
Supervision of Occupational Organisations
Dissolution and Reconstitution of Occupational Organisations

210
211
213

The Practical Reconstruction of the Trade Union Movement
First Attempt to Reconstruct the Trade Union Movement
The Trade Union Movement at the Time of the Liberation
Intervention by the British Trades Union Congress
and the World Federation of Trade U n i o n s . . . .
Legislative Action
Eighth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress
Intervention of the Council of State
S econd Attempt to Reconstruct the Trade Union Movement
Removal of the Executive of the Greek General
Confederation of Labour from Office
Second Intervention of the Council of State
The Resumption of Negotiations
Further Attempts at Agreement
Present Organisation of the Greek General Confederation of Labour

221
223

Emergency Measures
The Right of Association of Public Employees
Discriminatory Measures in respect of Trade Unions . .
The Compulsory Trade Union Contribution
Measures concerning Public Order

254
254
256
257
258

Conclusions and Recommendations
The Principle of Non-Discrimination
Political Independence of the Trade Union Movement . .
The Compulsory Trade Union Contribution
Reform of Trade Union Legislation
Codification of Regulations
Constitution of Occupational Organisations
Autonomy of Occupational Organisations
Suspension or Dissolution of Occupational Organisations
Recognition of Occupational Organisations

263
263
265
266
267
267
269
270

CHAPTER

VII. Organisation of Administrative Services . . . .

Problems of Administrative Machinery
Regrouping of Responsibilities
Transfer of Duties to a New Specialised Body
Provision for Systems of Co-ordination
Staffing Problems

214
215
219
220

223
225
228
234
236
242
242
244
247
250
252

271
274
278
279
280
283
284
286

Vili

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE
Page

Staff Regulations
Recruiting and Promotion
Professional Training for Technical Duties
Security of Tenure
Salaries

CHAPTER

VIII. General Conclusions

The Political and Economic Setting
Employment and Employment Organisation
Conditions of Labour
Social Insurance
Organisation of Administrative Services
The Trade Union Situation
Industrial Relations
The Co-operative Movement
Agricultural Workers

IX. Summary of Recommendations Contained in the
Report
A. Employment and Employment Organisation
B. Conditions of Employment — The Regulations and their
Enforcement
C. Social Insurance
D. The Trade Union Situation
E. Organisation of Administrative Services

287
287
288
288
291

294
296
297
298
299
300
301
304
308
311

CHAPTER

313
313
315
319
321
322

APPENDICES

I. Observations of the Greek Government on the Report of the
International Labour Office Mission
II. Report of the Supervisory Committee of the Ninth Pan-Hellenic
Trade Union Congress

327
370

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Since the liberation of Greece from the Axis occupation a
number of missions have visited the country for the purpose of
advising and assisting the Greek Government and people in
the solution of their problems. These missions have accumulated
a mass of information on the economic, political and social
problems of Greece and much of this is available in published
form. "When the Mission of the International Labour Office
visited Greece in October-November 1947, it was able to refer
to a good deal of this material and to obtain first-hand impressions from members of other missions who had been or
were still in Greece and who were concerned with some of the
problems which the Office had been invited to investigate. 1
The I.L.O. Mission consisted of the following officials of
the International Labour Office : Mr. J. Donald Kingsley
(Principal Chief of Section) 2 and Mr. John Price (Chief of the
Industrial Committees Section), joint heads of the Mission;
Mr. I. Bessling (Chief of the Industrial Law and Relations
Section) ; Mrs. M. Thibert (former Chief of the Women's and
Children's Section) ; Mr. A. Zelenka (Actuarial Adviser to the
I.L.O.) ; and Miss K. Natzio (member of the Official Relations
Section), translator-interpreter. During its visit to Greece
the Mission was also accompanied by a secretary, Mrs. Delarue.
The members of the Mission included experts in the main fields
1
The work of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Greece is -well known. Other international missions have
been sent to Greece by the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture
Organisation and the "World Health Organisation. Examples of
missions sent by individual Governments are the British Economic
Mission and the American Mission for Aid to Greece. Reference should
also be made to the missions which visited Greece on behalf of the
World Federation of Trade Unions and the British Trades Union
Congress.
2
Mr. Kingsley left the service of the International Labour Office
shortly after the Mission's return from Greece but assisted in drafting
the Report.

2

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

of labour legislation and were competent to examine, in particular, industrial relations, industrial law and organisation,
conditions of work, employment problems and social security.
The Mission arrived in Athens on 8 October and remained in
Greece for a little over a month.
Before proceeding to Greece, the members of the Mission
made a study of the Greek labour laws and decrees which were
available in Geneva. Many of these were already in the library
of the International Labour Office and a number of them have
been translated and published in the Legislative Series.1 Steps
were taken to add to the collection and to arrange for the
translation of the most important of the laws and decrees which
were not already available. 8 Reference was made also to the
reports of other missions to Greece for the purpose of obtaining
the clearest possible insight into the conditions prevailing in
the country. By the time the Mission arrived in Greece it had
completed the necessary preliminary studies as far as it was
able and was ready to enter into consultation with representatives of the Government, employers' organisations, trade unions
and other organisations and institutions concerned.
While in Greece, however, the Mission ascertained that there
were a number of laws and decrees of which it had not been
aware and which had to be translated before the members of
the Mission could study them, and some of this information
did not become available until the eve of the Mission's departure
from Greece. The Mission, indeed, experienced considerable
difficulty in obtaining not only the complete texts of laws and
decrees but also accurate factual and statistical information, much of which either did not exist or was not readily
available. This was a serious handicap to the Mission in its
attempt to arrive at an understanding of the problems to
be overcome.
CONTACT WITH THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR

On its arrival in Athens the Mission immediately established
contact with the Ministry of Labour, which had been entrusted
1

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

O F F I C E : Legislative

Series,

published

every two months ; hereinafter referred to as L.S.
2
In t h e case of some of t h e t e x t s studied and cited in its Report
t h e Mission has had t o use translations obtained from outside sources,
and it has not always been possible t o check these with t h e original
Greek.

INTRODUCTION

3

with the task of making the necessary arrangements to facilitate
the Mission's work. The International Labour Office wishes to
take this opportunity of expressing its appreciation for the
hospitality which was afforded to the Mission by the Greek
Government and for the trouble that was taken to arrange
interviews and visits and to provide the requisite travelling
facilities.
The Mission was received at the outset by the Minister of
Labour, Mr. Protopapadakis, and given a most cordial welcome.
Attending the Minister were the Secretary-General of the
Ministry, Mr. Papalekas, and the Director-General, Mr. Pavlakis.
During the interview the Minister outlined the general situation
prevailing in Greece and gave his views as to the problems which
the Mission might usefully examine. A number of these problems were discussed at some length, enabling the Mission to
obtain a more precise indication of the field which the Government desired it to cover. The Mission then met the heads
of the various departments of the Ministry under the chairmanship of Mr. Pavlakis and made arrangements for obtaining
their help and guidance.
At an interview held immediately afterwards, Mr. Pavlakis
gave the Mission information on the arrangements made for
carrying out its work, and continued the discussion of specific
problems which had been started at the interview with the
Minister.
TRIPARTITE COMMITTEE

Mr. Pavlakis stated that a tripartite committee, consisting
of representatives of the Ministry of Labour, the employers'
organisations and the trade unions, had been appointed to
consult with the members of the Mission, and it was agreed
that the Mission's next contacts should be made with and
through this body. A meeting was held the following morning
between the tripartite committee and the members of the
Mission. The composition of the committee was as follows :
Ministry of Labour : Mr. Pavlakis, Director-General ; Mr.
Malatesta, Director of Industrial Relations.
Federation of Greek Industries : Mr. Heliopoulos, Vice-President ;
Mr. Tsatsos, Vice-President.
General Confederation of Labour: Mr. Patsantzis, SecretaryGeneral ; Mr. Hanos.

4

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The employers' and workers' representatives extended a
welcome to the Mission and expressed their readiness to provide
help and information. At the request of the Mission, the
members of the tripartite committee gave their views as to
the specific questions which they thought the Mission should
examine. Among the subjects to which attention was drawn by
the various members were the following :
(1) legislation relating to conditions of work, including
wages, hours of work, health and safety ;
(2) the organisation of labour inspection ;
(3) legislation relating to the settlement of disputes and to
industrial relations generally ;
(4) employment problems, including the contract of employment and the provision of employment opportunities by migration and public works ;
(5) vocational training, especially for young workers ; and
(6) social insurance questions.
There seemed to be general agreement that Greek labour
legislation was, on the whole, advanced, but attention was
drawn to the fact that many difficulties were encountered in
its application. Both the employers' and the workers' representatives agreed that the standard of living of the people was
very low and that there were, and always had been, serious
obstacles in the way of a general improvement. Moreover, the
country was experiencing unusual difficulties owing to the war,
the enemy occupation, and the civil strife which had occurred
since the liberation. It was also agreed that the country's
industrial and social problems could not be solved by legislation
alone.
These observations confirmed the Mission's view that if it
was to make a useful and practical contribution to the improvement of legislation it would need to take account of the country's
economic and political situation, the organisation and methods
of Greek industry and the actual conditions under which
industrial work is carried on. It would need to obtain the
views of Government departments, employers, trade unions
and individual workers, not only regarding the legal provisions
in force, but also regarding the methods and extent of their
application. It would also need to enquire into problems which
had not yet been dealt with by legislation.

INTRODUCTION

5

The members of the tripartite committee agreed to assist
the Mission in planning interviews and in arranging visits to
factories, workshops and other establishments. It was decided
that separate meetings should be held with the General Confederation of Labour and the Federation of Greek Industries,
after which the tripartite committee would assemble again to
discuss the further needs of the Mission and to assist it in
arranging its programme.
A second meeting with the tripartite committee was held
some days later. Meantime, the members of the Mission had
attended numerous meetings and interviews, had begun their
visits to factories, workshops and social insurance institutions
and had made plans for a three-day visit to Salónica during
the following week. The representatives of the employers and
workers expressed their satisfaction at the manner in which
the Mission was carrying out its work and reaffirmed their
willingness to give it their full co-operation.
A third meeting of the tripartite committee took place at
the end of the Mission's stay in Greece. At this meeting the
members of the committee gave their views concerning some
of the problems into which the Mission had been enquiring.
DISCUSSIONS IN GREECE

It has already been mentioned that the Mission was welcomed
by the Minister of Labour immediately after its arrival in
Greece. Before leaving Greece the Mission had two further
interviews with the Minister, in the course of which some of
the problems it had encountered were discussed in detail.
Mr. Tsaldaris, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime
Minister, who had invited the International Labour Office to
undertake the study, was attending the Assembly of the United
Nations in New York when the Mission reached Athens. The
members of the Mission were, however, received by him on his
return from New York.
A great part of the Mission's work was done with the help
and advice of the Ministry of Labour. Offices were placed at
its disposal by the Ministry, and the heads of the Ministry's
services were always available for consultation.
Much of
the information needed for an understanding of Greek labour
legislation and its application was obtained from the Ministry,
particularly in regard to such subjects as conditions of

6

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

employment, labour inspection, employment organisation,
industrial relations and social insurance. The Mission was
able to examine these problems not only at the headquarters
of the Ministry, but also at some of its local offices in Athens,
Piraeus and Salónica. Some of the legislation concerning the
conditions of employment of certain categories of workers is,
however, administered by other departments, and it was therefore necessary to consult these as well. Visits were accordingly
paid in particular to the Ministry of Transport, which deals
with matters affecting railway workers and tramwaymen, and
to the Ministry of Mercantile Marine, which administers legislation relating to merchant seamen. Enquiries were also made
at the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Social Welfare
and the Ministry of Education, regarding the measures in force
and the institutions in existence for maternity protection, the
protection of children, the health protection of young -people,
assistance to young workers, and the organisation of general
education in relation to the problems of the age of admission
to work and the preparation of children for employment.
Information concerning social insurance legislation, including
legislation on unemployment insurance, was obtained from the
Ministry of Labour. This material was supplemented by the
officials of the Social Insurance Fund (I.K.A.) and the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and by those of some of the other funds,
such as the Artisans' Fund and the Textile Workers' Auxiliary
Fund in Athens, and the Tobacco Workers' Fund and the
Greek Railwaymen's Fund in Salónica. Information was also
obtained by visits to some of the social insurance hospitals,
dispensaries and other institutions in Athens and Salónica.
It was necessary for the Mission to endeavour to secure
background material relating to the country's economic and
social problems, the problems of reconstruction and other
material which might have a bearing on labour questions, as
well as statistics concerning population and health problems,
which are important for purposes of social insurance. Some of
this material was available in the Ministry of Labour and the
Ministry of Social Welfare, but to fill out the picture it was
thought advisable to seek the help of the Ministry of National
Economy, the Ministry of Reconstruction, the Ministry of
Co-ordination and the Ministry of Agriculture, where visits
were paid both to the Minister and to the Director of Agricultural
Organisations (including co-operative organisations). Statistical

INTRODUCTION

7

information was also obtained from the Superior Economic
Council, the Bank of Greece and the Agricultural Bank (Cooperative Section).
All these matters were discussed on various occasions with
representatives of the employers' organisations and the trade
unions, both at meetings of the tripartite committee and in
separate interviews with representatives of the two sides. At
these meetings, and in numerous informal conversations, the
opportunity was taken to obtain the views of the employers
and the trade unions concerning the whole range of labour
questions and the problems of social insurance. The Mission
is grateful in particular to Mr. Heliopoulos, Mr. Tsatsos and
Mr. Mantzoulinos of the Federation of Greek Industries and to
Mr. Patsantzis, Secretary-General of the General Confederation
of Labour, for the trouble they took to. provide both information
and comment. The friendly co-operation of the representatives
of the Chamber of Commerce in Salónica, who received the
Mission and arranged various visits for them, was also much
appreciated. In addition to visiting the offices of the General
Confederation of Labour in Athens, the Mission paid visits to
the Workers' Centres at Athens, Piraeus and Salónica. Problems
were discussed with Mr. Makris, Chairman of the Athens
Workers' Centre, and members of the Executive of the Centre,
Mr. Kassimatis, Chairman of the Piraeus Workers' Centre, and
Mr. Theocharides and members of the Executive of the Workers'
Centre, as well as with representatives of the General Confederation of Labour, at Salónica.
In view of the fact that the Executive of the General Confederation of Labour had been provisionally appointed, pending
the holding of a congress at which a new Executive was to be
elected1, it was desirable for the Mission to meet representatives of the various groups within the trade union movement
and to hear their views on the position of the trade unions in
Greece as well as on the problems connected with legislation
concerning conditions of labour and social insurance. Discussions took place, therefore, not only with Mr. Patsantzis, Secretary-General of the Confederation, but also with the four
secretaries, Mr. Makris, Mr. Theocharides, Mr. Kalomiris and
Mr. Laskaris. The Mission also met representatives of the
Left, including Mr. Theos (Communist), and Mr. Stratis
1

Cf. Chapter VI, pp. 242 et seq.

8

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(Socialist Trade Unionist) and other members of the former
Executive of the Confederation. Another prominent leader
who gave his views to the Mission was Mr. Hadzidimitriou.
Although the Mission was principally concerned with the
problems of labour legislation, it could not entirely ignore
other questions which came within the field of activity of the
International Labour Organisation. Some of these questions
were discussed with individuals and representatives of organisations interested in the work of the I.L.O., including women's
organisations, social welfare organisations, artisans' organisations and representatives of the co-operative movement. In
view of the prominent place occupied by agriculture in Greek
economy, any full study of the economic and social problems
of Greece would naturally- deal at length with agricultural
questions and would make reference to the position of the cooperative movement. The present Report does not seek to
cover the whole ground and therefore does not contain any
detailed account of conditions in agriculture. 1 More people
are employed by agriculture in Greece than by all other activities,
but the number of agricultural wage earners is smaller than might
be expected, since so much of the land is divided into small
farms and peasant holdings which are worked by the farmer
or peasant and his family. Little of the existing labour legislation applies directly to agricultural workers, and the Mission
did not examine the question whether special enactments to
deal with the problems of agricultural labour are necessary.
It was not suggested by the Government that the Mission
should extend its enquiries to agricultural legislation, nor would
it have been possible for the Mission to do so adequately in
the time at its disposal.2
Again, although the Mission was not able to make a detailed
study of the problems of the Greek co-operative movement, it
met representatives of co-operative organisations, such as the
Pan-Hellenic Federation of Unions of Agricultural Co-operatives
and the Union of Consumers' Co-operatives, and gathered
information on the most important problems confronting the
movement today. The International Labour Office, through
its Co-operative and Handicrafts Service, has followed the
!Cf. Chapter V I I I , p . 311.
2
For an account of agricultural conditions in Greece, see F O O D AND
AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION OF T H E U N I T E D N A T I O N S : Report

F.A.O.

Mission

for Greece (Washington, D.C., March 1947).

of

the

9

INTRODUCTION

development of the co-operative movement in Greece and will
continue to maintain its interest in the movement's activities. 1
While in Greece the Mission made contact with the American
Mission for Aid to Greece (A.M.A.G.), which has built up a
great store of factual material on the economic, social and labour
problems of Greece. The Mission naturally desired to have
access to this documentation, if possible, in order to save time
and to avoid duplication of effort, and its task of obtaining
factual information was greatly facilitated by the willingness
of A.M.A.G. to assist. The thanks of the Mission are due, in
particular, to the head of A.M.A.G., Mr. Dwight Griswold, and
to the Chief of the Labour Division, Mr. Clinton Golden, and
his assistant, Mr. Alan Strachan, and to Messrs. Geoffrey May
and Hubert Gallagher. Much useful factual information was
also obtained from the Labour Attachés at the British and
United States Embassies in Athens, to whom the thanks of
the Mission are also due.
VISITS IN GREECE

Most of the time of the Mission was of necessity spent in
Athens, where the members were in touch with the headquarters
of the various Government departments and social insurance
funds and were also able to meet officials from the provinces
who came to Athens on business. This was natural, not only
because Athens is the administrative capital, but also because
it is the country's principal industrial and commercial centre.
By far the greater part of Greek industrial activity takes place,
in fact, in the regions of Athens and Piraeus. Here the largest
concentration of population in Greece is to be found and here
the majority of the country's industrial workers are employed.
All the problems connected with labour legislation and its
application are met with in this region, where modern factories
and primitive workshops exist side by side, and where large
numbers of the principal special categories of workers, such as
railwaymen and seamen, are employed.
The other main industrial centre is Salónica. Here, too,
there is a wide range of industries and the main problems
connected with the regulation of conditions of labour can be
studied. Allowance must be made, however, for local différé e

also Chapter VIII, pp. 308-311.
2

10

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

enees : the conditions of Athens and Attica are by no means
identical with those of Salónica and Macedonia. Each of the
regions of Greece has its own peculiarities, which have been
accentuated by geographical barriers ; this was so in ancient
times and in spite of the development of modern methods of
communication it remains broadly true today. While account
must be taken of these variations, the main problems of labour
legislation and its application nevertheless remain substantially
the same for the country as a whole.
After Athens, Piraeus and Salónica, the remaining industrial
centres are small. Apart from Patras and Volo, there are no
industrial towns of any size on the mainland. There are,
however, regions which have particular importance from the
industrial point of view, such as the textile region in northern
Greece, the tobacco country around Kavalla, the region of
Kalamata in southern Greece, with its olive oil, fruit drying
and preserving, and the shores of the Gulf of Corinth, where
currants are grown and dried. Features of special interest are
to be found on some of the islands, though here again there
are no considerable centres of industrial activity. Even in
Crete there are no big industrial areas.

An enquiry into labour

conditions in the islands would at least bring out new details,
even if it did not change essentially the general picture which
the Mission was able to form. A study of the labour problems
of Rhodes, which has just been united with Greece after its
transfer from Italian rule, might prove of considerable value,
now that Greek labour and social insurance legislation and
Greek methods of administration are to be put into effect on
the island. Unfortunately, the Mission was unable to go into
this question in the time available.
Consideration was given by the Mission to the possibility
of visiting some of the provincial centres in order to examine
their problems on the spot. It was found, however, that
this would have taken an altogether disproportionate amount
of the time at the Mission's disposal. Communications between
one part of Greece and another have never been easy, and the
difficulties of travel have been increased by the damage done
to roads and railways and the destruction of harbours and
shipping. It would, indeed, have been necessary to spend
three or four days in order to make even a one-day visit to a
town no further away than Patras or Volo. In view of these
difficulties, the Mission was unable to see any of the provincial

INTRODUCTION

11

centres except Salónica, or to visit any of the islands. Although
the Government was willing to provide facilities for such visits,
the Mission felt that its limited time could be more usefully
spent in and around Athens, Piraeus and Salónica.1
The Mission visited a large number of factories, workshops
and institutions, as well as working-class districts and housing
projects, in order to see the actual conditions with which labour
and social insurance laws have to deal and the manner in which
the legislation is administered. While the immense massproduction plants of highly industrialised countries are unknown
in Greece, there are a number of medium-sized factories which
are as up to date as those of any other country. Such factories
are not, perhaps, typical of Greek industry, but in view of the
immense difficulties of recent years the fact that they exist at
all is significant. A great part of Greek industrial activity is
carried on in workshops employing only two or three people
and in small establishments where the workers number a dozen

to twenty. In such workplaces the problem of securing satisfactory conditions of employment and of ensuring the effective
enforcement of labour legislation is one of peculiar difficulty.
Some time was spent by the Mission, therefore, in visiting
not only the factories but also the small establishments in the
Athens region and at Piraeus and Salónica. Outstanding
examples of modern plants were found in the manufacture of
metal tubes, textiles, hosiery, rubber goods, pottery, glass,
plastics, chemicals, cigarettes and cement, and in oil refining
and the production of high-class printing. The small establishments and workshops were engaged in the production of a great
variety of articles such as garments of all kinds, including
stockings and underwear, hardware, carpets, furniture and other
articles for household use. They also included small printing
shops, metal workshops and so on.
GUIDING CONSIDERATIONS

It will have been noted that the telegram from Mr. Tsaldaris
to the International Labour Office invited the Office " to undertake a full examination of the Greek labour laws and to make
1
Incidentally, while in Salónica the Mission obtained a more vivid
impression than elsewhere of the profound effects produced by current
events on conditions of labour, and especially on employment, as a
result of the influx of refugees to the towns.

12

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

recommendations to the Royal Hellenic Government ". In
the view of the Office this work had to be done in three stages :
first, by undertaking a preliminary study of the laws ; secondly,
by an examination of the problems on the spot ; and, thirdly,
by the preparation of a considered report after the conclusion
of the Mission's visit to Greece. The Mission therefore endeavoured to refrain from putting forward proposals and suggestions while in Greece, since it thought that any recommendations which it might feel able to make should be embodied
in its written report. In all its discussions, the Mission took
the line that its function was not to give advice on the spot
concerning any of the day-to-day problems that arose in regard
either to conditions of labour or to social insurance. This was
particularly important in relation to the problems of the trade
union movement, in view of the political considerations which
were involved and the high feelings that had been aroused,
and also in relation to the wages question, which at the time
of the Mission's visit was of particular current interest. Efforts
to mediate in regard to the current problems of labour and
particularly to the problems of the Greek trade union movement
had been made by the World Federation of Trade Unions, the
British Trades Union Congress, the American Federation of
Labor and the British and United States Governments (through
their respective Labour Attachés, through special envoys and
through the Labor Division of the American Mission for Aid
to Greece). It would have been unfortunate if the I.L.O.
Mission had been drawn into the attempts to settle these very
controversial questions when it had not in fact been invited
to Greece for that purpose. The I.L.O. is nevertheless intensely
interested in these problems and an account of them is given
in another part of this Report. 1
It seemed that the invitation to the International Labour
Office to make recommendations to the Greek Government
concerning the review and revision of the country's labour
legislation could not be met merely by making a study of the
legal texts. If the study was to be realistic, it would also have
to include an examination of the methods by which the laws
are administered and enforced. Laws which remain on paper
might as well not exist at all ; it is not merely the wording of a
law but its application which determines whether it is satis1

See Chapter VI.

INTRODUCTION

13

factory or not. Hence the Mission decided to spend some part
of its time in enquiring into the machinery for the administration
of labour legislation.
At the risk of labouring what might seem to be an obvious
point, it should be emphasised that one of the great difficulties
in the way of the promotion of improved labour standards has
been to ensure that when international labour Conventions are
ratified and laws enacted their provisions are in fact carried out.
The Mission would have been of little service if it had expressed
opinions on the texts of the laws without also considering
whether the laws were being reasonably well observed. Laws
are enacted to meet circumstances and to deal with problems ;
they should not, therefore, be judged in relation to theories
alone, but should be examined in the light of the circumstances
and problems which they are designed to meet. In its study
of Greek labour legislation it was accordingly necessary for the
Mission to have regard to the industrial conditions of the country
and to its economic situation, both in order to understand the
circumstances in which the laws have to operate and in order
to appreciate the factors which may hamper their application.
The Mission indeed went to considerable trouble to gain information on the country's problems—industrial, economic and
political—and on the conditions of life of the people, including
their housing, health and education, as an indispensable background to its study of the legal provisions.
In carrying out its examination, the Mission made every
effort to ascertain the views of as many people as possible who
were interested in the problems of Greek labour legislation and
social insurance, whether in the various Government departments and social insurance funds or in the organisations of
employers and workers. "When studying any given problem, the
International Labour Office must seek to be completely objective
and must be prepared to listen to the evidence from all sides.
These considerations seemed to be of particular importance in
the case of the study of Greek labour laws, since some of the
problems were unusually acute and opinions in the country
were sharply divided. The abnormal conditions produced by
the war, the occupation and the post-liberation period, and the
highly-charged political atmosphere of the country rendered
the task of the Mission both difficult and delicate ; and it was
therefore essential to hear the views of all who had anything
to contribute—not only in order that the Mission might realise

14

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

the full implications of the various problems but also in order
that no doubts should arise in any quarter concerning the
objectivity of the International Labour Office and its desire
to be of genuine assistance.
When considering the revision and reform of the legislation,
the Mission took the line that it would not be sufficient merely
to compare the laws with those in force in other countries. It
is true that in forming a judgment regard has to be paid to
the best practices obtaining in other countries and also to the
standards put forward in the international Conventions, Recommendations and other decisions of the International Labour
Organisation ; nevertheless, conclusions as to the value of the
legislation must be formed in the light of the actual circumstances
of the country and should not simply be based on a comparison
with more advanced countries or on opinions as to what would
be theoretically desirable.
Finally, in drawing up its recommendations the Mission
has attempted to make a useful and practical contribution to
the improvement of the legislation. It has endeavoured to relate
its recommendations both to the standards laid down in the
decisions adopted by the International Labour Organisation
and to the objective conditions obtaining in the country. The
Mission has not wished to propose ideal solutions, but solutions
which are possible in the existing conditions. Accordingly, it
has recognised the special circumstances of Greece and the
difficulties of the present situation and has attempted to keep
them in mind.
Greece is neither a highly industrialised nor a highly organised
country. The income per head of the population has always
been exceptionally low, the standards of living of the people
have never been very good and the country has never been
really prosperous. When these facts are considered against
the background of the present abnormal situation, it will be
realised that tremendous obstacles will have to be surmounted
before the standards of life and labour in Greece can compare
with those in the more advanced industrial countries. The
introduction of reforms depends not only upon a recognition
of what is desirable, but also upon the nature of a country's
economy, the stage of organisation which the country has
reached, the relations between employers and workers, the state
of public opinion and other factors which have to be taken
into account if the proposals made are to be realistic. It would

INTRODUCTION

15

be possible to recommend the passage of a great many new
laws in Greece, but it may be doubted whether this would be
the most practical approach, since it would, in effect, involve
the assumption of new obligations and charges by an economy
which already finds it difficult to bear its existing burdens.
It is not only by means of new legislation that progress is made,
and the Mission therefore examined each problem with a view
to determining whether, in the circumstances in which the
country is placed, it could best be made by legislative reform,
by improved administrative methods and machinery, by action
on the part of the employers' organisations and trade unions,
or by other means.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

It may be useful to emphasise once again the purpose of
the Mission and the circumstances in which it went to Greece.
When the International Labour Office was invited to make its
study of Greek labour laws, the outstanding problem was that
of the reorganisation of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour and of the relations between the Confederation and the
Government. This problem had been causing concern not
only in Greece but outside. As already pointed out, the British
and United States Governments, in particular, had shown a
desire to assist in its solution, and the matter had been constantly
before the World Federation of Trade Unions and the trade
union movements of a number of countries closely interested
in Greece. Moreover, on two occasions—at Montreal in 1946
and Geneva in 1947—the credentials of the Greek workers'
delegation to the International Labour Conference had been
challenged, so that the I.L.O., too, was concerned with the
problem. However, it was not in order to promote a settlement
of the differences within the Greek General Confederation of
Labour and of the relations between the Confederation and the
Government that the I.L.O. Mission was invited to Greece.
The Mission's task was to survey labour legislation in general
(even though this includes legislation regulating the trade
unions), and therefore, as indicated previously, it refrained from
offering any advice to the Government or to the representatives
of the various trade union groups as to the means by which
this problem might be settled. The recommendations it has

16

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

wished to make are to be found in the relevant chapters of this
Report.
In view of the current international interest in Greece, it
may also be worth pointing out that the work of the I.L.O.
Mission was not in the nature of an investigation into Greek
affairs. The study was suggested by the Greek Government
itself because the Government, to quote the invitation, was
" conscious of the need of reviewing and revising the labour
legislation of Greece, including that which regulates trade
unions " and because it recognised " the impartiality and technical competence of the International Labour Office ". Such
studies have been undertaken by the Office on behalf of other
countries, and a number of missions have been sent to various
parts of the world in recent years at the request of the Governments concerned. The Office is glad to be able to place its
technical services at the disposal of Governments in this way
and thus to help them in advancing the cause of social
justice.
Greece has been a Member of the International Labour
Organisation since its inception and has regularly sent delegations to the sessions of the International Labour Conference.
Since the war, Greece has been represented at all the sessions
of the Conference : at Paris (1945) by a delegation from the
Government, and at Seattle (1946), Montreal (1946) and Geneva
(1947) by tripartite delegations which included representatives
of the employers and workers as well. Greece was also represented by a tripartite delegation at the Conference held
in Philadelphia in 1944. A number of international labour
Conventions have been ratified by Greece, which has thus shown
a desire to keep in line with the march of improvement in labour
legislation.1 Greek labour legislation, as a result, compares
quite favourably with that of most other countries.
A difficulty encountered by the Mission was that the problems of the country are coloured by the abnormal economic
and political conditions. This applies over the whole field—to
the problems of the trade union movement, of conditions of
labour and of social insurance. The war, the enemy occupation
and the civil strife in Greece itself, taken with the troubled
economic and political situation in the world as a whole, have
produced new problems and aggravated old ones, while, as will
1

For a list of Conventions ratified by Greece, see below, p. 81.

INTRODUCTION

17

be seen in other chapters of this Report, some of the steps taken
during the dictatorship, the war and the occupation have
helped to create problems which must be solved as the country
gradually returns to normal.
The whole situation at the time of the Mission's visit was both
abnormal and fluid, and the Mission has therefore endeavoured
to look beyond the transient conditions to the fundamental
circumstances and problems with which Greek labour legislation
has to deal. Some of the Mission's recommendations, it is
true, are designed to deal with the more urgent and immediate
questions, but in the main, the recommendations are concerned
with measures which may be put into effect by stages over a
period of years.

CHAPTER II
THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING
Legislation is neither framed nor applied in a social vacuum.
In every country it reflects the balance of political forces and
the nature and health of the economy. In times of political
and economic stress, these relationships are close and clear.
Greece is no exception to this rule. Indeed, so urgent are
the political and economic problems confronting the nation
today that they directly affect every aspect of life, including
labour legislation and its application. The I.L.O. Mission was
not charged with the specific study of these immediate problems.
But the Mission could carry out its primary assignment only
in full cognisance of them. Nothing in Greece is understandable
except against the background of political insecurity and
economic difficulties which are the factors dominating Greek
life today.
The Political Situation
Modern Greece, with spiritual and cultural roots extending
back to the Hellenic and Hellenistic civilisations and to the
Byzantine Empire, is in reality one of the younger modern
States, Greek independence having been achieved little more
than a hundred years ago (1828-1829). From the very beginning
the great Powers have interested themselves in Greece. Greek
political divisions have, as often as not, been reflections of
struggles among them, rather than of differences over domestic
issues and there has been domestic tranquillity in Greece only
during periods of world stability. Thus, while the Concert of
Europe endured, Greece enjoyed a considerable degree of
stability. With its disruption, that stability vanished, and the
country's problems have steadily multiplied since the first
World War.
Today, the political and economic affairs of Greece are
again being profoundly affected by the unsettled conditions of
the post-war world.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

19

As a result of the first World War and of the Balkan wars
which preceded it, Greece acquired considerable additional
territory : Epirus, most of Macedonia, western Thrace, and the
Aegean Islands.
At the conclusion of the war, an exchange of populations
with Bulgaria uprooted most of the Slav-speaking peasants of
Macedonia. Their places were taken by some of the Greek
refugees from Turkey, following the exchange of populations
with that country in 1923-1924.1 However, a considerable
colony of Slav peasants still inhabits the north-western corner
of Greece.
Until the time of the Metaxas dictatorship (1936), the
assimilation of this group was progressing steadily. But the
Metaxas Government placed various legal handicaps upon
them, which made them fully conscious of their minority status
and receptive to separatist propaganda. During the occupation,
many of them participated actively in the resistance movement ;
but they had their own organisation (N.O.F.) and were never
completely controlled by the National Liberation Front (E.A.M.)2
or assimilated into its armed forces (E.L.A.S.).3 Their formations have since participated in the disorders in the north and
have taken the lead in the movement for an autonomous
Macedonian People's Republic. As documents presented to the
Assembly of the United Nations indicate, the objective of a free
Macedonia has also been supported by various responsible
spokesmen of the Yugoslav and Bulgarian Governments.*
In numerous other ways, acts of the Metaxas dictatorship
(1936-1941) have contributed to Greece's present political problems. Prior to 1936, the Greek Communist Party was insignificant and the situation was not such as to lead to the
expectation of its substantial growth. The country was not
highly industrialised and the number of industrial workers was
small. There was no system of large estates and most of the
peasants owned the land they worked. While the Communists
1

See below, p. 28.
E.A.M. was organised on 27 September 1941 with the Communist
Party, the Agrarian Party of Gravielides, the Republican Party, the
Union of Popular Democracy, the Socialist Party and the United
Socialist Party as constituent members. In addition, many individuals
from the Liberal Party were active in it in the early days.
3
National People's Liberation Army, the military arm of E.A.M.
4
UNITED NATIONS : Report by the Commission of Investigation, Doc.
S/360, 27 May 1947, Vol. I, pp. 167 et seq.
2

20

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

had secured some adherents among the workers and particularly
among the underprivileged refugees from Asia Minor, they
had no mass support and succeeded in electing only sixteen
deputies in 1936.
Acts of the dictatorship played into the hands of the Communists in two essential respects. In the first place, there
was the suppression of dissidents, and several hundred persons,
including some republican political leaders, were exiled. This
embittered Greek political life and had the effect of weakening
the centre groups and strengthening the two extremes. In the
second place, the outlawing of political parties and organisations
meant that only those groups skilled in underground activities
could maintain themselves. Thus, at the time of the occupation,
only the Communists had an organisation capable of directing
the resistance movement, for they alone had been able to
maintain and to strengthen their organisation under the
dictatorship. They therefore soon gained control of the National
Liberation Front although, as originally constituted in 1941,
this was a broad coalition representing many political groups
in addition to the Communists, with a general left-of-centre
orientation.
These factors have had an important bearing on the troubled
political history of Greece during the closing stages of the war
and since the liberation. Today the country is suffering from
the effects of political divisions that for the past four or five
years have created a state of intermittent civil war. There
have been violent swings of the pendulum between the left
and the right, and excesses committed on both sides have
made the cleavages within the Greek people deeper. Under
the terms of the Varzika Agreement, which put an end to the
revolution of December 1944, E.L.A.S. was to disband and
surrender its arms, political amnesty was granted to its members,
and political freedom was granted to the Communist Party.
There followed, however, a period of reaction in which the
civil service, the army and the professions were purged and
many acts of violence were committed against the members
of the left groups. At the same time, the more moderate
groups in the E.A.M. coalition broke away from the left. Not
all E.L.A.S. arms were surrendered, however, and not all its
members returned to their homes. Some took to the hills,
several thousands fled across the border into Yugoslavia, and
thousands more were driven into Albania. Some of these

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

21

groups later returned to Greece to participate in the disorders
which continue to disrupt Greek life.1
Furthermore, the general elections which were also provided
for in the Varzika Agreement, and which were held in March
1945, failed to restore unity because the left groups refused to
participate in them and consequently to accept their results as
valid. The Allied Mission for Observing the Greek Elections
estimated that abstentions for political reasons constituted
between 10 and 20 per cent, of the eligible vote.
These various elements have sharply contributed to the
political instability which has existed in Greece since the
liberation. As already indicated, the events of the Metaxas
dictatorship, of the occupation and of the civil war have widened
the gulf between right and left and practically destroyed the
centre. Some Powers have supported the Greek Communists
and guerilla forces, while others have supported the nonCommunist and rightist groups. Greece has once more become
involved in the conflict of international rivalries. Under these
conditions political stability is virtually impossible to achieve
without a worldwide settlement.
During the time spent by the I.L.O. Mission in Greece,
clashes between the guerilla forces and those of the Greek
Government occurred not only in Macedonia, Thrace and
Thessaly, but also in the Peloponnesus and in the Corinth
Peninsula. The guerilla activities have had the effect of
disrupting normal life over a very large proportion of the total
area of Greece. Continuing interference with communications
and transport, outside the main centres of population, has
disorganised economic life throughout the country by hindering
the normal processes of trade and travel between one area and
another. The complete insecurity prevailing in many areas
in northern and central Greece has prevented the appointment
of Government officials, the proper collection of taxes and the
carrying out of Government policies generally. Villages have
been looted and burnt ; in some areas others have recently
been evacuated in order to facilitate military operations. As
a result, their inhabitants have left their fields uncultivated,
sold their cattle and taken refuge in the nearest towns or
gravitated towards the Salónica or Athens-Piraeus areas, where
1
Report by the Commission of Investigation, op. cit. See, in particular,
the testimony and conclusions concerning the refugee camp at Bulkes
in Yugoslavia.

22

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

they have become a charge on public funds and private charity.
In October 1947 these refugees were estimated to number
300,000, but the figure was constantly increasing. They are
housed in halls, churches, refugee camps or under any other
kind of shelter that can be found, and they swell the already
crowded ranks of the unemployed or try to eke out a livelihood
by joining the large army of street traders and hawkers which
is so conspicuous a feature of Greek towns today.
As a result of this situation the Government is obliged to
devote a very large share of the budget to military and police
functions. When the Mission was in Greece the size of the Army
was being increased, with the help of the American Mission for
Aid to Greece, from 150,000 to 200,000 men. Thus, a large
proportion of the country's manpower, instead of being harnessed
to the urgent tasks of reconstruction, is still engaged in warlike activities which are essentially destructive. The psychological effects of this situation are equally serious. Greece's
desperate plight and critical strategic position have caused
international agencies and foreign Powers to intervene. This
has made the Greek people feel that their fate does not lie in
their own hands and, in combination with the sufferings they
have undergone, has made it more difficult for them to brace
themselves to the task of reconstruction. 1
The problem of restoring order and internal security is
unquestionably the central problem in Greece today. It is an
especially difficult one—as the debate on the Greek question
at the 1947 Session of the United Nations Assembly indicated
—and cannot be resolved by military means alone. This is particularly true so long as present conditions prevail along Greece's
northern frontiers. The United Nations Balkans Commission
has been created to assist in this aspect of the problem.
1
The scale of the operations increased still further after the
Mission left Greece, as instanced by the proclamation issued by General
Markos in December 1947. Since October 1947, his forces have been
officially supported in their activities by the Central Committee of the
Greek Communist Party. The existence in the towns of well-organised
Communist elements, which by their alliance with these forces have put
themselves in a position of irreconcilable opposition to the present
régime, has forced the authorities to take drastic security measures,
many of which involve a curtailment of civil liberties. Some examples
of such measures, in so far as they affect matters of concern to the
Mission, are given in Chapter VI. They include the setting up of standing
courts-martial to deal with a very wide range of security offences,
restrictions on the freedom of the press, and the prohibition of strikes
and banning of the Communist Party in December 1947.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

23

In a political climate such as this, everything becomes
subordinate to the question of security. Political tests come
to the fore in the selection of officials, and the administrative
machinery of the State is inevitably brought to bear on the
internal struggle. The atmosphere is supercharged with politics,
and this affects every aspect of Greek life. Political insecurity
distorts public administration, the public employment services
and the social insurance system ; it interferes with trade union
organisation and prejudices relations between employers and
workers. Most important, perhaps, it serves to delay economic
recovery.
The Economic Situation
Three years after liberation, the state of the Greek economy
is distressing. This is attributable in large part to the political
situation ; for while other European nations have been able to
move forward with reconstruction plans, Greece has continued
to suffer the destruction of war. Thus, although Greece has
received nearly a thousand million dollars' worth of outside
aid since the war—an amount relatively larger than that
granted to any other country, and as large as the Greek national
income for the same period—it has made but halting progress
toward recovery. 1 Foreign aid, including U.N.R.R.A. assistance,
has largely prevented starvation. It has not primed the economic
pump.
ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

The Greek economy has never been highly productive, and
consequently Greece has never been a rich country, but on the
contrary, one of the poorest countries in Europe. Its natural
resources are comparatively limited. Coal, for instance, is
entirely lacking except for a certain amount of lignite, the
output of which was 139,000 tons in 1939. The production of
bauxite, chrome and lead ore, of iron pyrites, etc., has been
1
The make-up of post-liberation aid is estimated as follows :
U.N.R.R.A. supplies, $350 million ; British contributions, $518 million,
a p a r t of which was spent before liberation ; American Lend-Lease
imported after liberation, $80 million ; Export-Import Bank credit,
$25 million ; U.S. Surplus Property credit, $55 million ; credit for
purchase of 100 surplus U.S. ships, $45 million. The U.S. Congress
also appropriated on 22 May 1947 $300 million for further aid to Greece,
in addition to $50 million voted separately in t h e post-U.N.R.R.A.
Relief Bill.

24

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

only on a small scale. Agriculture, the most important economic
activity, is handicapped by the fact that three quarters of the
total area of the country is not cultivable, and yet agricultural
workers constitute 60 per cent, of the occupied population.
The ratio of farm population to arable land is extremely high ;
there are, in fact, few countries where it is higher. The census
of farms taken in 1929 showed that out of a total of 953,367
farms, 37.6 per cent, were less than 1 hectare x in area, 35.1
per cent, were between 1 and 3 hectares, 23.3 per cent, between
3 and 10 hectares, 3.8 per cent, between 10 and 60 hectares
and 0.2 per cent, over 60 hectares.
Most farmers have not enough land, with the result that
their incomes are always low. For example, a typical family farm
in the intensive tobacco regions in Macedonia and Thrace has
only from % to 1 % acres per family. In the olive-growing,
regions of Crete and the Peloponnesus, typical farms have only
2y2 to 5 acres. In the wheat-growing plains of Greece, the
typical large farm has only 7% to 12% acres per family. 2
Although the Greek economy is predominantly agricultural,
the country has always had to import some of its food. In
1939, for instance, it imported 26 per cent, of the wheat, 15
per cent, of the maize, 85 per cent, of the rice, 97 per cent, of
the sugar (including honey) and 33 per cent, of the beef the
people consumed. On the other hand, farm products also
accounted for about 90 per cent, of Greek exports, i.e., leaf
tobacco, raisins, olive oil, figs, wine and olives. The value of
all imports exceeded that of exports. In 1938, exports paid
for about 70 per cent, of imports, the remainder having been
covered by remittances from Greeks living abroad, by returns
from the comparatively large merchant marine and by tourist
receipts. It may be noted in passing that the things Greece
had to import were mostly necessities, while exports fell largely
in the luxury class. As a result, its foreign trade was always
precarious and the balance of international payments was
maintained with difficulty.
The principal manufacturing industries before the war were
textiles, chemicals, food processing and leather ; but the total
value of industrial production, including food processing, was
only about one fifth that of agricultural production. The
1
2

1 hectare = 2.471 acres.
Report of the F.A.O. Mission for Greece, op. cit., pp. 155-156.

POLITICAL A N D

ECONOMIC

25

SETTING

development of industry has been retarded for a number of
reasons, including the shortage of coal and of basic raw materials,
the lack of a mass market in Greece, and the limited amounts
of available capital. Most of the industrial establishments
existing before the war were small enterprises, and the artisan
shop with two or three workers is even today more typical of
Greek industry than the larger plant. 1
The structure and nature of the Greek economy are revealed
by the distribution of the gainfully employed population. The
distribution by industrial status and main occupational groups,
as shown by the census of 15 May 1928, is given in table I.
TABLE

I.

GAINFULLY

AND

OVER,

OCCUPIED

CLASSIFIED
AND

BY

POPULATION,

AGED

OCCUPATIONAL

INDUSTRIAL

10

YEARS

GROUPS

STATUS

(Census of 1928)
Occupational groups

Agriculture, stock-raising,
hunting, fishing . . . .
Mines and quarries . . .
Industry
Communications and transport
Banking, exchange and
broking
Commerce
Public services
Liberal professions. . . .
Personal services . . . .
Unspecified occupations. .
Occupied population . . .
Total population
Total population (aged
10 years and over) . . .

Persons
employing
salaried
employees
and workers

Persons
employing
members of
family onlj

Persons
working
on own
acconnt

Hombers of
employer's
family working
in family

82,852 404,099 334,592 525,342
107
19
151
75
29,060 12,741 121,970 19,535
3,818

1,410

30,234

2,540

1,913
25,499

316
11,468

6,061
85,415

452
13,311

2,677
2,023

327
467

25,415
6,284

444
631

Salaried
employees

1,512 127,244 1,475,641
5,784
6,340
204
429,831
4,310 242,215
51,146

106,758

13,324
871
16,488 33,379
41,029
3,443
52,643
4,463
98 48,067
18,655 169,920

22,937
185,560
44,472
85,969
57,570
188,475

17,610

147,949 430,847 610,122 562,330 165,773 686,532 2,745,508!
6,204,684
4,814,720

Source : Annuaire statistique de la Grèce, 1932, pp. 73-74.
i Including 141,955 of unspecified industrial status.

A census of industrial and commercial establishments, taken
in September 1930 and covering 76,591 industrial undertakings
and 99,240 commercial establishments, showed the total number
1

See also Chapter IV, pp. 83-85.
3

26

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

of persons employed in the establishments concerned as 280,331
for industry and 174,460 for commerce.
The results of the 1940 census have never been worked up,
the war having interrupted the necessary work. Only estimates
are available to give some idea of the position in more recent
times. The most reliable information is from a sample survey
conducted by the Allied Mission for Observing the Greek
Elections in the summer of 1946 and later analysed by a number
of competent American statisticians. 1 The results of this
analysis are given in table II.
TABLE

II.

EMPLOYMENT

STATUS

OF T H E G R E E K

POPULATION,

15 JULY-7 AUGUST 1946
(1,000's)
Group

Total population

Male

Female

Total

3,599

3,658

7,257

2,179
175
183
2,537

484
1,391
107
716
2,698

2,663
1,391
282
899
5,235

877
106
1,049
2,032
147

250
8
176
434
50

1,127
114
1,225
2,466
197

Aged 14 and over :

Total
Aged 14 and over :
At work or with a job :

Total
Not at work b u t seeking work

The comparatively large number of independent workers is
explained partly by the fact that most farms are small units
which do not employ paid labour, and partly by the prevalence
of small industrial and commercial establishments in which
only the owner and members of his family are employed.2
1

R . J . J E S S E N , R . H . B L Y T H E , J R . , O. K E M P T H O R N E and W. E D W A R D S

DEMING : " On a Population Sample for Greece " , in Journal of the
American Statistical Association, September 1947, p p . 357-384.
2
See below, p p . 83-85.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

27

N A T I O N A L INCOME AND P O P U L A T I O N

In view of the economic structure of Greece and the difficulties under which the country labours, it is understandable
that the national income should always have been small and
the standard of living of the majority of the people low. It is
always difficult to make a reliable estimate of the national
income and its distribution, and this applies with particular
force to Greece, where much of the necessary statistical data
is lacking and very rough estimates have to be used. Subject
to this consideration, however, it may be estimated that the
national income, even in the best pre-war years, never
reached $700 million. In 1938, for example, the total income
was 73,713 million drachmae ($658 million). Since the
population in that year is estimated at 7,109,000, the income
per head was about $90. But even this figure gives a distorted
picture of living standards, because of the distribution of the
national income among the various population groups.
Excluding the expenses of the State, the municipalities and
the clergy, the 1938 national income was distributed among
major economic groups as follows : 44 per cent, to agriculture,
28 per cent, to industrial and commercial enterprises, 14 per
cent, to salaried employees, 11 per cent, to wage earners and 3
per cent, to members of the liberal professions. The U.N.R.R.A.
Economic Mission made a careful analysis of the family income
distribution within each of these groups. It concluded that,
in 1938, 558,808 agricultural families (comprising 2,661,420
persons) had annual incomes of 20,000 drachmae or less, equivalent to $178 at the pre-war rate of 112 drachmae to the dollar.
This meant an income per head of less than $39. Another
275,340 agricultural families, representing 1,239,080 persons,
had incomes of between 20,000 and 40,000 drachmae a year,
or less than $78 per head.
Among workers, the situation was little better : 220,900
workers' families, representing 1,130,780 persons, were in
similar income categories, as were 87,650 families of members of
the liberal professions and 53,278 families of salaried employees.
All in all, 40 per cent, of the total population and 60 per cent.
of the agricultural population had incomes of under $39 per
head in 1938—a good pre-war year. The income per head was
under $78 a year for more than three fourths of the entire
population. Such amounts were obviously scarcely adequate

28

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

to maintain a minimum existence and quite inadequate to
provide any kind of a market for manufactured articles. Greek
industry was therefore limited in terms of the market to less
than one quarter of the population, even in relatively good
times.
To complete the economic picture, mention must be made
of the influx of refugees into the country after the first World
War. This resulted partly from the population exchange
between Greece and Bulgaria under the Treaty of Neuilly, which
involved the exchange of 46,000 Greeks from Bulgaria for
53,000 Bulgarians from Greece, but mainly from the exchange
of population between Turkey and Greece under the Lausanne
Agreement of 13 January 1923, as a result of which over a
million Greeks from Asia Minor, Thrace and other parts of
Turkey were exchanged for 450,000 Turks living in Greece.
According to the census of 15 May 1928, the refugees numbered
1,221,849, of whom 1,099,216 came from Turkey, 49,027 from
Bulgaria, 47,091 from the Caucasus and 25,515 from other
countries.
Lastly, reference must also be made to the tendency of
the agricultural population to drift to the towns. In 1920, the
town dwellers constituted 27 per cent, of the total population ;
by 1928, the proportion had risen to 33 per cent., and by 1940
to 37 per cent. The three large cities with a population of
over 100,000, namely, Athens, Piraeus and Salónica, together
accounted in 1920, 1928 and 1940 respectively for 11, 15 and
18 per cent, of the total population.
Effects of the War and the Occupation
Greece suffered more heavily in the war than any other
Allied country, with the possible exception of the Soviet Union.
The dramatically successful Albanian campaign against the
Italians nevertheless cost heavily in men and materials, as did
the subsequent campaign against the German army. The
occupation itself was devastating. The three occupying forces
—German, Italian and Bulgarian—divided the country into
three separate regions with no contact between them, systematically removed or destroyed capital facilities and reduced the
Greek people to actual starvation. 1 Hundreds of thousands
1

The average daily diet is estimated to have been only 900 calories
in 1941, and at no time during the occupation more than 1,400 calories.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

29

died of malnutrition and disease, while many more were killed
in reprisals for acts of resistance.
The monetary losses, relatively to the size of the Greek
economy, were astronomical. The Paris Conference on Reparations estimated their total, including occupation expenses and
physical destruction, at almost $8,500 million. Production
losses and the destruction of working capital through inflation
would add thousands of millions of dollars more.
No area of the country escaped severe physical damage,
although Athens was less hard hit than other areas. Thousands
of villages were burned to the ground and nearly one fourth of
all buildings were either totally destroyed or severely damaged.
More than a million Greeks, mostly from agricultural regions,
were thus rendered homeless. Driven from the land, they
crowded into the already congested urban centres. 1 By the
end of the occupation, the area under cultivation had declined
by more than 25 per cent, and agricultural production had fallen
much more than that. By that time, also, Greece had lost
between one fourth and one third of its forests, more than
2 million olive trees, and 60,000 acres of vineyards. Half
of the draught animals and 80 per cent, of the pigs had been
destroyed.
Transport and communications—never very good—had
been thoroughly disrupted. The railways lost more than three
fourths of their total rolling stock and the retreating Germans
destroyed tracks, tunnels and bridges over the entire rail
system, as well as workshops and stations. Motor transport
was equally hard hit and half of the highway bridges in the
country were blown up. Three quarters of Greece's considerable
ocean shipping fleet and all ports and harbours were severely
damaged. At the Port of Piraeus, for example, every crane,
coal conveyor and other piece of machinery was destroyed,
warehouses and sheds were demolished, quays were methodically
blown up by mines, and shipping was sunk in the harbour.
The Corinth Canal—a vital link in sea transportation—was
blocked with a slide of millions of tons of rock and earth.
Telegraph and telephone lines and submarine cables were
wrecked.
Damage to industrial installations, while less severe, was
1

The population of Salónica tripled between 1940 and 1944, while
that of Athens more than doubled.

30

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

extensive. Most heavy equipment was either removed or
destroyed. The remaining equipment was worn out or left in
serious need of replacement parts and maintenance.
The systematic destruction of the economy was completed
by a fantastic monetary inflation, which wiped out all bank
deposits and reserves and produced psychological consequences
from which the economy is still suffering. As in many other
countries, the occupying forces resorted to the printing press
to meet their expenses and to mulct the country. In the case
of Greece, however, the resulting inflation was unusually
extreme. While production was being sharply curtailed as a
result of the occupation, the volume of drachmae in circulation
increased by 36,100 per cent, between October 1939 and January
1944.1 Immediately after the liberation, the Government
withdrew the existing currency and exchanged it for new
drachmae at the rate of 50,000 million to 1. The liquidation
of monetary assets was complete. But inflation did not cease
with conversion : it still remains a problem.
The Greek Economy Today

Recovery has not proceeded satisfactorily for a number of
reasons, mostly related to the prevailing state of insecurity.
While some progress has been made in physical reconstruction,
the surface has barely been scratched in this respect. In the
north, indeed, additional destruction by guerilla bands is keeping
ahead of rebuilding activities. 2 Villages are still being burned,
bridges and other communications are still systematically being
destroyed, crops are being laid waste in the fields. Inflation
has not been stopped. The national budget has not been
balanced. Export levels have not been restored. Both agricultural and industrial production are substantially below the
pre-war level and—in important instances—below levels reached
in 1946. The low pre-war living standards of the people have
been further depressed. Almost a million and a half persons
1

U N I T E D N A T I O N S R E L I E F AND R E H A B I L I T A T I O N ADMINISTRATION :

Post- War Public Finance in Greece, Operational Analysis Papers, No. 25
(London, 1947), p . 3.
2
The Third Greek Army Corps reported, for example, t h a t during
October 1947, 26 railway bridges were destroyed in its area of operations
in north-western Greece. The number rebuilt during this period was
very m u c h lower.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

31

are today classed by the Government as " indigent ", with
incomes under 20,000 drachmae ($2.50) a month, that is, barely
enough to buy, in addition to the daily ration of 80 drams 1
of bread at the official price, two dozen second-grade eggs for
the whole month, or four fifths of an oke of rice, or half an oke
of butter, or 5 okes of milk, at the retail prices for these articles
in Athens on 6 November 1947 2 ; or (a more likely purchase)
enough to buy 70 drams per day of the most ordinary quality
of fresh olives.
PROGRESS OF ECONOMIC RECOVERY

From an economic standpoint, the most serious physical
reconstruction problems relate to transport. The railways are
still in bad shape in terms of rolling stock, tracks, bridges and
tunnels. Greece has today only one third of the total rolling
stock it had before the war and less than a quarter of the
passenger cars. Service has been restored over the total area
of the Peloponnesus network (S.P.A.P.), but at reduced speeds
owing to the condition of the tracks. The mainland network
(S.E.K.), the connecting link between north and south, operates
only between breaks caused by the destruction of bridges and
tunnels.
The serious damage to the highway system has not yet
been repaired and the Ministry of Reconstruction estimates
that not more than 5 per cent, of the highways are in good
condition. Many others, including stretches of the main road
from Athens to Salónica, are virtually impassable.
Progress has been made in the restoration of ports, and
those of Piraeus, Volo and Salónica are now in operation.
Extensive damage to docks, quays and loading and discharging
facilities in these and other ports remains to be repaired, however, and port costs are therefore exceedingly high. The
Corinth Canal, which formerly saved 200 sea miles in reaching
Aegean ports from the Adriatic, is still blocked, although
clearance work is beginning.
As a result of this situation and the constant additional
interruptions to transport by the guerillas, internal freight
1
a

1 oke (400 drams) = 1.283 kg., or about 2 lb. 13 oz.
1 oke (liquid measure) = 1.34 litres, or about 1 quart 2 gills.
Prices recorded by the Statistical Service of the Bank of Greece.

32

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

traffic is but a fraction of its pre-war volume, and excessive
transport costs seriously impair the ability of Greece to recapture
export markets. Transport difficulties also affect agricultural
and industrial production by limiting markets to local areas.
Agriculture has recovered more than any other sector of
the economy, but production levels in general are still only
about 85 per cent, of pre-war levels and are far below the
TABLE III. PRODUCTION OF IMPORTANT CROPS IN 1947

Crop

Cotton.
Tobacco
Wheat.
Maize .
Barley .
Rye . .
Oats. .

1947 as percentage
of pre-war production
Acreage

Yield per acre

49
80
95
69
86
89
90

113
93
69
77
60
52
67

Source : Ministry of Co-ordination.

consumption needs of the people. Except in the case of cotton,
yields per acre under cultivation in 1947 were substantially
lower than pre-war yields, as illustrated in table III above.
Production of the twenty major food crops, expressed in calories,
was about 34 per cent, below the pre-war output and some
5 per cent, below that of 1946.
The grain crops in 1947 were seriously affected by drought,
and the production of tobacco and fruit products was curtailed
by the absence of normal markets in central Europe and by
very high costs of production when world prices are translated
into drachmae.
The level of industrial production is now estimated by the
Federation of Greek Industries to have reached 67 per cent.
of the pre-war level, having increased from a low point of
33 per cent, in 1945. As might be expected, there is wide
variation in the levels achieved by different industries. In
August 1947 the mining industry, which was almost completely
wrecked during the occupation, was producing at only 14 per
cent, of the pre-war rate. Electric power production, on the
other hand, was'130 per cent, of the pre-war rate and some of

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

33

the components of the chemical industry—notably pharmaceuticals and glass—had exceeded pre-war rates. So had the
cigarette industry, which was operating at a rate about half
as high again as that of 1939.
But the general • tendency is the opposite one. According
to the August 1947 figures, steel production was at 65 per cent.
of the pre-war figure, shipbuilding and repairing at 8 per
cent., cement at 64, bricks and tiles at 40, cotton spinning and
weaving at 75, the knitting industry at 30, carpet making at
5, and flour production at 66 per cent, of pre-war rates. 1
Many factors contribute to these relatively low production
levels. Much of the industrial plant and machinery is worn
out. It was estimated by the Government, in connection with
the Paris discussions on the Marshall Plan, that industry requires
17 million dollars' worth of machinery to bring it back to
pre-war levels of efficiency. Much of the existing machinery
is of German origin and replacement parts are difficult to
obtain. It is also undoubtedly true that the manpower
losses and dislocations of the war, the occupation and the
revolution have had the effect of generally lowering labour
productivity.
When all this has been said, however, two factors remain
which are mainly responsible for the low level of industrial
activity. The first is a lack of confidence in the future, which
arises out of the conditions of insecurity, and the inflationary
psychology of which it is in large measure the cause. Industrialists are reluctant to undertake capital expansion under
present conditions. Nor are many of them in any great hurry
to process their existing stocks of raw materials in view of the
constantly rising price level.
The second consideration is, perhaps, even more compelling.
There is not an effective market at present for any substantially
greater volume of production. Industry has traditionally
produced for the home market, with no more than 10 per cent.
of exports taking the form of manufactured goods. That
market has been substantially reduced by the guerilla activity,
the disruption of transport, and depressed real incomes. More1
Greek statistics generally leave much to be desired, and those for
production are subject to a wide margin of error. They are thought,
however, to be generally representative of the actual situation and of
relationships between industries. Those used here are from Document
9817/26947 of the Ministry of Co-ordination and are based on figures
supplied to the Ministry by the Federation of Greek Industries.

34

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

over, those few industries, like carpet manufacture, which are
essentially export industries, find their markets limited by the
high costs of production when these are translated into foreign
exchange at prevailing official rates. It is unlikely, therefore,
that there will be any considerable further expansion in industrial
output until inflation is stopped and internal security achieved.
T H E CURRENCY PROBLEM

Depreciation of the currency and attendant price inflation
unquestionably constitute the major economic problems confronting Greece today, as they have for the past three years.
The drastic currency conversion of November 1944, when the
old drachma was withdrawn, served to halt the inflation of the
occupation period. But new inflationary forces soon developed,
stemming primarily from continued and large-scale deficit
financing by the Government. In the first two years following
liberation the budgetary deficits, despite the volume of foreign
aid, averaged more than a third of total expenditures, and even
in the fiscal year 1946-47, when strenuous efforts to improve
the situation were made by the Currency Committee, the
Government overdraft at the Bank of Greece amounted to
83 thousand million drachmae.
Several important factors on both the receipts and expenditure sides contributed to this situation. Government expenditures have increased substantially and the post-war budget
is several times pre-war size. This is partly a heritage of the
war itself, in the form of expanded pension rolls, grants to
bankrupt municipalities and public institutions whose reserves
were wiped out, reconstruction costs and increased public
employment. But it is more largly attributable to the lack of
internal and external security. Military expenses alone constitute about a third of the total expenditures and more than
ecpaal the accumulated deficit.
The situation created by the guerilla activities has also
drastically affected receipts (which are now only about 60 per
cent, of pre-war receipts) by contributing to the flight of capital
and to the generally low level of economic activity. Moreover,
in many areas of the country, the Government has been unable
to collect any taxes at all or has done so irregularly. An
archaic and inflexible tax system has also contributed to the
post-war fiscal chaos, and the whole tax structure is in urgent

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

35

need of fundamental reform. But the prevailing conditions
of insecurity have sharply reduced the yield of existing taxes
and directly contributed to the budgetary problem.
Moreover, in view of the low state of public confidence, it
was impossible to finance the deficits resulting from the conjunction of these factors by floating internal loans which would
have had some deflationary effect. They were met, instead,
by the issue of new currency by the Bank of Greece and a
similar procedure was followed in the case of agricultural and
industrial credits for reconstruction. 1 The result was a huge
increase in the volume of currency—an increase which was not
offset by the growth of bank deposits, but was directly reflected
in terms of increased monetary demand and consequently of
pressure on prices. As the following figures provided by the
Bank of Greece show, the volume of currency in circulation
was seventeen times greater in August 1947 than it was in
August 1945. Inflation has slowed down, but it still continues.
CURRENCY IN CIRCULATION, 1944-1947
(Million drachmae)
November 1944
1 August 1945
1 August 1946
1 August 1947

2,388
40,556
496,344
691,953

An expansion of this magnitude without any corresponding
increase in production or in the volume of foreign-financed
imports has inevitably led to the steady depreciation of the
drachma in relation to foreign currencies. The extent to which
this has occurred is indicated in table IV, showing " free "
market exchange rates at various times.
In this situation, speculation in the drachma has been
widespread. Persons holding drachma balances have immediately attempted to convert them into something else. There
has been, therefore, no substantial growth of bank deposits,
and the inflated volume of currency has either moved directly
into the commodity markets or into the purchase of gold. The
unrestricted sale of gold sovereigns to the public, undertaken
by the Bank of Greece as an anti-inflationary step in February
1
These have been large. According to information supplied by the
B a n k of Greece, on 31 August 1947 credits to trade, agriculture and
industry totalled 963,000 million drachmae.

36

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

TABLE IV.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE RATES
U.S. dollar

Date

August 1945 . . .
August 1946 . . .
J a n u a r y 1947 . .
March 1947 . . .
May 1947
. . . .
1 September 1947.
15 September 1947

Official
rate

Free

500
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000
5,000

750
6,221
7,914
7,442
7,663
9,200
8,550

rate

Pound sterling

Percentage Official
of official rate
rate

150
124
158
149
153
180
170

2,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000
20,000

rate

Percentage
of official
rate

2,470
21,774
22,339
21,880
22,724
25,300
24,250

123
109
112
109
114
126
121

Free

Source : Ministry of Co-ordination.

1946, resulted in draining off a very large volume of excess
drachmae. It had, however, the disadvantage of dissipating
Greek gold reserves into small hoards buried in backyards,
thus further complicating the problem of the balance of payments. The free market price of the gold sovereign has, moreover, been driven far above world parity, reaching 176,000
drachmae at one point during the stay of the Mission in Greece.1
This, in turn, has reacted sharply upon the internal price level,
so that rents, the prices of capital goods and-of many commodities have, by a process illustrative of Gresham's Law,
come to be quoted in gold sovereigns. The resultant situation
is extremely difficult to cope with, since the price of the gold
sovereign is determined primarily by psychological and political
factors related to the security situation rather than by economic
considerations. Thus, during October and early November
1947, when the general supply situation was improving, when
drastic steps to balance the budget were being taken, and when
a more effective system of import-export controls was instituted,
the price of the gold sovereign on the free market sharply
advanced, as did the general price level.
The cost of living thus continually increases, while incomes
(except those of speculators and black market operators) trail
seriously behind.
1
The currency situation deteriorated still further after the Mission
had left Greece. The gold sovereign reached 235,000 drachmae on
11 J a n u a r y 1948.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

37

PRICES AND WAGES

Statistics of price, salary and wage movements in Greece
are extremely inadequate. The steepness of the upward curve
of the cost of living varies according to the budget items included
in the calculation of the index, and also according to the
prices on which it is based, i.e., the prices current on the
free market where goods are available, or the officially fixed
prices, which are often merely theoretical. However, at the
time of the Mission's visit to Greece it was currently estimated
that the prices of certain essential articles had risen well
over 300 per cent, since 1939, while wages and salaries had
lagged behind. There is constant pressure, therefore, for upward wage adjustments and several general adjustments have
been made, including one in November 1947. Until price
inflation is checked, however, real wages cannot be restored
for any length of time to their pre-war levels.
The best wage-price data available are the indices of
wages and salaries and of minimum cost-of-living budgets
originally established by the Economic Analysis Division of the
U.N.R.R.A. Greek Mission and since continued by the Bank
of Greece. While their applicability is somewhat limited on
the price side by the restricted nature of the minimum budgets,
they clearly indicate what has been happening to real wages.
The various indices are brought together in table V. They
show in conjunction a number of interesting things. First,
the price of these minimum budgets has steadily increased
month by month, but the cost of the 2,300 calorie budget has
gone up more rapidly than that of the 2,550 calorie budget.
The lowest income groups must, therefore, have been more
severely affected by the inflation than the higher income groups,
although all have suffered. Secondly, at no time—except for
the two months when special bonuses were given—have wage
and salary increases kept up with price increases.
Since the liberation 1 the authorities have taken steps of
various kinds to try to counteract the inflationary movement
of the cost of living and to secure some readjustment of
wages.
1

For information concerning the occupation period, see International Labour Review, Vol. L I I , No. 6, December 1945, pp. 643-651 :
" The Inflation of the Cost of Living and Wages in Greece during the
German O c c u p a t i o n " , by S. AGAPITIDIS, Secretary-General of the
Superior Economic Council of Greece.

38

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

TABLE V.

PROVISIONAL COST-OF-LIVING

INDICES AND

INDICES

OF MONEY AND REAL WAGES AND SALARIES

Date

October 1939
December 19¿ 4
December 194 5
December 194 6
J a n u a r y 1947
February 194r7
March 1947
April 1947 .
May 1947 .
J u n e 1947 .
J u l y 1947 .

Index
of money
wages and
salaries

100
239
4,039
15,432*
7,707
9,550
9,550
12,715 2
9,550
9,550
'9,550

I n d e x of cost of living
in Athens

Index of real wages
and salaries

Minimum Minimum B a s e : cost Base : cost
budget :
budget :
of 2,300
2,550 calo- 2,300 calo- of 2,550
calories
ries per d a y ries per d a y calories

100

100

100

100

5,376
9,596
9,889
10,108
9,843
10,277
10,452
10,627
10,666

9,581
10,150
10,254
10,109
10,753
10,958
10,947
10,825

75.1
160.8
77.2
94.5
97.0
123.7
91.4
89.9
89.5

161.1
75.9
93.1
94.5
118.2
87.2
87.2
88.2

Sources : Bank of Greece ; Ministry of Co-ordination.
1
Including a special Christmas bonus.
2
Including a special Easter bonus.

In the field of price control the measure which has been most
effective is certainly the Rent Moratorium Act, which introduced
provisions particularly favourable to wage earners for the
purpose of safeguarding tenants against eviction, prolonging
the term of their leases and protecting them against the raising
of rents. Thus rent, normally one of the largest items in the
family budget (particularly in the case of town-dwelling workers),
has become an almost insignificant factor in current expenditure.
By contrast, and in spite of measures to fix the prices of
certain rationed goods, the proportion of the family budget
allocated to food, which seems to have been relatively large
even before the war 1 , swallows up an ever-increasing part of
the family income—nearly two thirds, according to a currently
accepted estimate. The price of bread has been effectively
controlled by the introduction of an official bread rationing
system which in October 1947, when the Mission was in Greece,
took the form of the allowance of 80 drams (256 grammes) of
bread at the fixed price of 200 drachmae, or only one third of
the free market price of bread.
1
In 1936 an enquiry conducted by the General Statistical Service
of Greece and covering 473 workers' and salaried employees' families
showed that on an average these families were obliged to spend over
one half of their income on food.

39

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

Control of the fares charged by transport undertakings and
the fixing of the retail price of tobacco have also checked inflation in respect of certain accessory expenditures. The effect
of these measures is revealed in very different degrees in the
cost-of-living indices established by separate budget items for
the month of April 1946 in the Athens-Piraeus area by the
Statistical Service of the Ministry of National Economy. These
indices are as follows (first six months of 1939=100) :
General index
Food
Rent
Light and heat
Miscellaneous (transport, cigarettes,
papers, etc.)

news-

7,945
10,174
800
11,560
6,732

The relevant data were lacking in October 1947 for a similar
comparison between the indices for the various items in the
budget after the steep rise in prices which had taken place in
the meantime. There is reason to believe, however, that the
differences between the various indices revealed by the above
figures have become still more marked, rather than the contrary.
So far as wages are concerned, official action has taken
various forms, all directed towards the two, and often contradictory, objectives of every Government in periods of inflation,
namely, to maintain the purchasing power of wages to the
greatest possible extent while at the same time checking the
inflationary effects that a substantial rise in wages would have
on the price level.
During the war both the wage control measures and the
actual movement of wages had tended to flatten out wage
differentials, on the principle that during an emergency period
the first essential was to cover basic minimum needs, which
are more or less the same for all human beings. Traces of this
principle are still evident in the wages and salaries fixed by
joint decision of the Ministers of Finance and Labour on 8
February 1946.1 Differences between the lower and higher
rates were not very wide, and the rates fixed were intended to
be both minimum and maximum rates. This scale of wages,
which was still officially in force when the Mission visited
1
Decision taken in accordance with Act No. 28 of 1944, which, soon
after the liberation, empowered the Ministers of Finance and Labour
to fix wages and salaries by joint decision. Decisions of the same kind
had previously been issued in December 1944 and in January, June and
November 1945.

40

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Greece in October 1947, provided the following rates for workers
and technicians paid by the day (Decision No. 3600) :
Rate
(drachmae)

Men :
1

Foremen
Skilled
Semi-skilled and specialised
Unskilled
Class A apprentices (2 years' employment) .
Class B apprentices (under 2 years' employment)
Women :
Skilled
Semi-skilled
Unskilled
Class A apprentices
Class B apprentices

7,200
6,000
5,000
4,000
2,700
2,200
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,200
2,000

It may be noted that under this scale the difference between
the rates in the higher and lower wage groups for men (including
apprentices) is as 1 to 3.3 compared with 1 to 9 before the war,
and in respect of the women's rates (including female apprentices)
only as 1 to 2.5 compared with 1 to 3.3 before the war.
At the same date a decision was issued fixing the salaries
for monthly paid employees, the basic salary being augmented
by family allowances.
It was not long before the steady rise in the cost of living
widened the gap between the wages and salaries fixed by these
decisions and the price of articles of prime necessity. As a
result, and in view of the increasingly urgent complaints of the
workers concerned, various expedients were adopted to improve
the situation.
Some of these measures consisted in increasing the rate of
pay for work done under specified conditions, for example, the
Decision of 12 March 1946 concerning payment of higher rates
to persons working on holidays ; the Decision of 29 May 1946
1
The current international terminology has been used to describe
the occupational groups corresponding to the wage scale, although the
Greek terms in question are often translated in different ways and
are thus liable to cause confusion. Thus the term used for the higher
grade of industrial workers, usually known as " skilled workers " , is
often translated by " t e c h n i c i a n " , which in international terminology
might be t a k e n to mean a salaried engineer and not a manual wagepaid worker. The term "specialised w o r k e r " is also frequently used
to describe t h e same grade, whereas in international terminology this
refers to a lower grade equivalent to " semi-skilled worker " . Similarly,
the. Greek term to describe the lower grade is often translated by " skilled
w o r k e r " , a term which in international terminology is kept for fully
trained higher-grade workers.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

41

increasing by 25,000 drachmae per month the pay of shop
assistants required to work in the afternoons ; the Decision of
3 August 1946 prescribing an extra daily bonus for workers
employed away from their normal place of work. Under other
decisions special payments in connection with holidays were
made obligatory : at Easter 1946 a bonus equal to 15 days'
wages or salary was prescribed subject to a reduction for newly
engaged workers (Decree No. 13400). The special bonus for
Christmas 1946 was even higher ; it amounted to one month's
salary for monthly paid employees and 25 days' wages for
workers, while the length of employment conferring a right to
the full payment was substantially reduced.
In a few industries gifts in kind were also prescribed, e.g.,
a specified supply of socks and stockings for the workers employed in the hosiery industry, in accordance with Decision
No. 4358 of 15 February 1946. Among similar measures to
increase the purchasing power of t h e p a y m e n t s officially allowed

to workers in the year 1945-1946, mention may also be made of
the facilities granted to workers, salaried employees and civil
servants for the purchase of low-priced clothing by means of the
distribution of clothing cards authorising the bearer to buy a
limited quantity of clothes imported by U.N.R.R.A.
In spite of these various special allowances, however, it was
generally recognised at the time of the Mission's visit to Greece
in October 1947 that the official rates of wages and salaries
were quite inadequate to enable workers to meet the cost of
living, and that in actual practice higher rates were paid than
those officially posted up in the factories and workshops. A
committee set up under-a Decision of the Minister of Labour
(No. 405 of 25 June 1947), to examine whether it was necessary
to revise the official wage rates, had just completed its work.
After conducting an enquiry in four urban centres it had come
to the conclusion that the wages and salaries actually paid in
private industry were substantially higher than the official
rates, but that the readjustments had not affected all the
workers, and it expressed the opinion that a general review was
necessary to straighten out the situation.
Indeed, the attempts made by the social insurance funds,
dating from some months earlier, to recover contributions on
the basis of the wages actually paid, and not of the official
rates, had given a certain sanction to the non-legal rates.
Although the principle adopted by the funds was not strictly
4

42

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

applied, since the more or less illegal character of the actual
rates paid made concealment comparatively easy, some reflection of this ad hoc readjustment of wages may be found as
early as the beginning of 1947 in the statistics prepared by the
Athens regional office of the Social Insurance Institution
(I.K.A.) relating to insured persons employed by large undertakings. During the months of January, February and March
1947, the general average wage per working day on which the
contributions collected were based was respectively 10,398
drachmae, 9,825 drachmae and 10,128 drachmae. This means
that the average was much higher than the rates, given above,
fixed in February 1946 for the highest paid groups of workers.
The averages for the textile and clothing industries are especially
significant. Although two thirds of the labour force of these
industries in Greece consist of women and the official wage
rates for women ranged from 3,000 to 5,000 drachmae per day,
the average wage per day shown by the I.K.A. statistics was
9,808, 9,409 and 9,757 drachmae, respectively, for the three
months concerned.
The attention of the Mission was frequently drawn to this
de facto readjustment of wages, which anticipated the results
expected from the tripartite negotiations in progress at the
time. .Nevertheless, it was clear that the wage scales introduced
empirically under pressure of economic conditions differed
substantially from one industry to another and from one undertaking to another. The law of supply and demand clearly
operated to the advantage of the most highly skilled workers,
of whom there was a shortage, but the readjustment lagged
behind for the lower categories. The range of wage differentials
had been considerably widened.
A striking feature was the widespread application in the
Athens-Piraeus area of output bonuses as a means of enabling
efficient workers to earn more than the minimum wage. This
device seemed to have produced the usual stimulating effect
to the advantage both of production and of the producer, and
was a successful experiment in Greek industry.
The agreements which resulted from the tripartite negotiations for the readjustment of wages, and which were signed
on 4 November 1947 and on the days following1, laid down
rates for monthly salaries of private employees and daily wages
1

The agreements were retroactive to 20 October 1947.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

43

of workers based on those established by the pre-war collective
agreements, multiplied by a quotient varying with each step
on the wage scale.
The results of these readjustments are shown in a simplified
form in table VI. These rates apply to the Athens-Piraeus area
and are subject to a 15 per cent, reduction in the provinces.
TABLE VI.

SALARY AND WAGE
MADE IN NOVEMBER

ADJUSTMENTS
1947

(Drachmae)
Monthly salary

Daily wage

Employees

Workers

Pre-war rate

Minimum
rate
20 Oct. 1947

Quotient

500599
1,000- 1,099
1,500- 1,599
1,800- 1,899
2,000- 2,099
2,500- 2,599
3,000- 3,099
3,500- 3,599
4,000- 4,099
4,600- 4,699
6,000- 6,099
8,000- 8,099
10,000- 10,099
12,500- 12,599
14,900- 14,999

125,000
220,000
295,000
340,000
370,000
442,000
506,000
566,000
620,000
680,000
781,000
905,000
1,088,000
1,200,000
1,368,000

250-209
220-200
197-184

193-179
185-179
177-170
168-163
162-157
155-151
148-145
130-128
113-111
109-107
96- 95
92- 91

Pre-war
rate

Minimum
rate
20 Oct. 1947

Quotient
of
increase

58
59- 60
61- 70
71- 80
81- 90
91-100
101-110
111-120
121-130

Men
11,000
11,400
13,000
14,500
15,800
17,000
18,000
19,000
20,000

190
193-190
200-186
200-181
197-176
187-170
178-164
171-158
163-154

Apprentices (male)
15-24
3,000
200-125
25-34
5,300
212-156
35-44
7,500
214-170
45-54
8,500
189-157
55-57
10,500
191-184
28-33
34-40
41-50

Women
7,000
8,000
9,000

250-212
235-200
220-180

Apprentices (female)
15-24
3,000
200-125
25-27
5,300
212-196

These rates are no longer both minimum and maximum
rates in accordance with the principle followed by the ministerial
decisions which had fixed wage rates during the previous three
years under Act No. 28 of 1944. They are again supposed to
be minimum rates, since there is a clause in each of the agreements providing that the rates may be exceeded, although on
strictly defined conditions, i.e., the basic wage or salary may be

44

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

increased up to 30 per cent, in return for an improvement in
the quantity or quality of the worker's output and provided
that there is no consequent increase in the price of the product.
The inclusion of this clause in all the new agreements thus
gives official sanction to the practice of paying output bonuses
which had been unofficially introduced during the preceding
period, while at the same time limiting its scope. So far as
the Mission was able to judge from information collected at
first hand when visiting factories in October 1947, the increase
in the basic wage resulting from output bonuses was in many
cases much greater than 30 per cent, at that time.
The methodical progression of the quotients of increase
is clearly shown in table VI. Subject to minor variations
at each step in the scale, the quotient becomes lower as the
basic salary increases. The principle to which reference was
made above, namely, the attempt to give priority protection
to the purchasing power of the lowest wage groups, has continued to apply. As a result the wage differentials have been
narrowed ; in the case of salaried employees the pre-war spread
of 30 to 1 has been narrowed to 11 to 1, and in the case of male
wage earners the pre-war spread of nearly 9 to 1 has been reduced
to 7 to 1, while in the case of women the spread ranging from
3.5 to 1 before the war has been reduced to 2.5 to 1.
It is open to question, however, whether current practice
closely follows this theoretical narrowing of differentials. All
the agreements include a safeguarding clause providing for
the maintenance of wages which were higher than the prescribed
rates at the time when the agreements were signed. There may
therefore be considerable variation in the effects of the latest
readjustments according to the degree of strictness with which
this clause is interpreted.
A particular point for consideration is the possible effect
of the combined operation of the above-mentioned clause and
the prescribed wage scales on the earnings of women. If the
separate female rates appended to the scales for daily paid
workers are examined, it is obvious that although, in accordance
with the principle explained above, a high quotient has been
applied to the so-called women's rates, which would be the
lowest rates in a general scale for adult workers, yet the rates
fixed in October 1947 for women workers are still much lower
than the minimum wage set for the lowest male wage group
(9,000 drachmae per day for the highest female wage group

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

45

compared with 11,000 drachmae per day for the lowest male
wage group). This did not appear to correspond with the
current practice in October 1947 in the case of women employed
on skilled or semi-skilled jobs l , and the rates fixed in 1946
were themselves in a different relationship.
Owing to the lack of officially published cost-of-living
statistics, it is difficult to estimate the real value of wages.
However, on the basis of unofficial statistics of the movement
of prices from various sources and of semi-official estimates of
the variations in the cost of living, it may be concluded that,
for most of the wage groups shown in table VI above, the newly
prescribed minimum rates did not have the effect of restoring
wages and salaries to their real pre-war value, so that from
about the fourth step shown on the simplified scale in the table,
representing a barely average wage, the real value of the minimum rates in October 1947 was still below the pre-war level.
As the cost-of-living index appears to have shot up by something
like 10 or 12 per cent, during the two months following the
signing of the agreements, it seems reasonable to conclude
that already by the end of 1947 the balance of wages had been
upset, even in the case of the lower wage groups which had
benefited by a favourable readjustment, and that the disequilibrium throughout the scale was becoming more pronounced.
The most recent readjustment was prescribed for a period
of six months and a thorough study of the position will probably
have to be made before the expiry of that period. The problem
of wages is therefore still acute. Moreover, the balance between
wages and prices is only one of the factors making for economic
stability, and the success of any readjustments made in contributing to a lasting equilibrium is bound up with the fate of
all the other measures adopted to rebuild and stabilise the Greek
economy as a whole.
FOREIGN TRADE AND THE BALANCE OF PAYMENTS

It remains, in filling in this general background picture,
only to touch upon the problems of foreign trade and the balance
of payments. Greece must import and, therefore, must export
to live. About one third of its present minimum food require1
See above, p. 42, for the average wages paid at the beginning of
1947 in the textile industries, as shown by the statistics of the Athens
Office of the Social Insurance Institution.

46

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

ments must be met by imports, and there is an urgent need
for steel, machinery, building materials, minerals, vehicles,
tyres and many other import items, if economic recovery is
to go forward. All in all, the American Economic Mission
(Porter) estimated conservatively that, for the year beginning
30 June 1947, imports to the value of $320 million would be
required, in addition to $100 million worth of military equipment
and supplies and $34 million worth of reconstruction equipment. 1
The Greek Government itself estimated import requirements
at $361 million, excluding the military and reconstruction
items. 2
Before the war, the deficit in the balance of payments
arising from the excess of imports over exports was met
from " net invisibles ", and more particularly from substantial
emigrant remittances. In 1938, for example, Greece imported
goods to a value of $131,766,000 against exports valued at
$92,851,000. But over $23 million in emigrant remittances
were received that year, almost $10 million from shipping, and
nearly $8 million from foreign investments.
Today, in the face of increased import requirements, all
the other factors have changed. For a variety of reasons,
exports have not recovered. In 1946, their value equalled
only 47 per cent, of the value of commercial imports and about
15 per cent, of the value of all imports if U.N.R.R.A. supplies
are included. Exporters have been hampered by the loss of
their principal markets in central Europe, by artificially high
production costs in terms of the world market (arising from the
fact that official drachma exchange rates do not reflect the
extent of the inflation in the Greek economy), and by excessive
transportation costs. The most important export products,
in particular, leaf tobacco, have been priced well above world
market prices at official exchange rates.
Coincident with the serious changes in the traditional relation
between imports and exports, there has been a sharp drop in
1

" Report of the American Economic Mission to Greece " , summary
in Department of State Bulletin, Supplement, 4 May 1947, pp. 898 et seq.
* Programme of the Ministry of National Economy. The estimates
included, among other things, $162,772,920 for foodstuffs, $31,709,000
for agricultural supplies and equipment, $29,423,176 for fuel, $17,000,000
for non-agricultural machinery, $20,823,000 for metals, $30,500,000 for
industrial raw materials, and $13,251,733 for chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

47

emigrant remittances and in receipts from the merchant marine.
Ever since liberation, therefore, Greece has found it necessary
to import at a rate far above that for which it could pay with
exports, emigrant remittances and shipping earnings, and has
been confronted with a constantly increasing shortage of foreign
exchange, aggravated by the dissipation of gold reserves as a
result of the free sale of gold by the Bank of Greece. By the
early part of 1947 these reserves were virtually exhausted. 1
At the same time, the country faced a further crisis in the
form of the early termination of British and U.N.R.R.A.
assistance. This situation caused the Máximos Government
to appeal to the Government of the United States for aid—an
appeal which led to the adoption by the Congress of the United
States of the $300 million Greek assistance programme and to
the establishment of the American Mission for Aid to Greece.
The Greek Government, with the advice and assistance of the
American Mission, is now engaged in formulating and applying
a broad range of economic programmes aimed at reconstruction
and recovery.
The situation is changing too rapidly to make it worth while
—or even possible—to deal here with most of these programmes.
It is anticipated, however, that the budget for the fiscal year
1947-48 will be balanced ; that the numbers of public employees
will be sharply reduced ; that major communication lines will
be restored and water supplies improved ; that a beginning
will be made on rehousing ; and that exports will be about
double those of the preceding year. While allocations within
the $300 million aid programme are constantly shifting—particularly as between military and non-military items—it is
proposed to spend about $50 million on relief, $20 million on
agricultural rehabilitation, and $130 million on physical reconstruction.
Important steps have already been taken to improve the
export-import situation. A Foreign Trade Administration was
established in October 1947, together with a new system of importexport controls. Steps were also taken to overcome the disadvantages under which the Greek exporter has laboured as a
result of the artificially high official rate for the drachma.
While the official rate was continued unchanged at 5,000
1
By February 1947, gold and dollar holdings of the Bank of Greece
had been reduced to $12.5 million, while partially convertible sterling
reserves totalled only $100 million.

48

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

drachmae to the dollar, its effects on exporters were mitigated
by the institution of a system of export-import certificates.
Exporters possessing foreign exchange receive, upon its sale to
the Bank of Greece, drachmae at the official rate plus export
certificates for the amount of foreign exchange sold. These
certificates bear no fixed rate in drachmae but are negotiable
on the open market and may normally be sold at approximately
the difference between the official and the free market rate for
the foreign currency involved. Importers are required to
possess certificates up to the value of any foreign exchange
they wish to purchase at the official rate from the Bank of
Greece. The net effect of this is to reverse the relative positions
in which exporters and importers formerly found themselves
and substantially to reduce the prices of Greek products on the
world market. 1
In the final analysis, of course, whether these or other
measures succeed in bringing economic recovery and stability
to Greece will depend largely upon the solution of the country's
political difficulties, both internal and external.

The Mission was not requested to make recommendations
on the general economic situation and did not investigate
economic conditions with that end in view. But it was apparent
to the members of the Mission that the kind of background
presented in this chapter was essential to an understanding
of the problems encountered in the application of Greek labour
legislation and to the intelligent formulation of any practical
recommendations for improving that legislation. The specific
observations and recommendations which follow have been
shaped, therefore, in the light of the general political and
economic situation which the Mission found in Greece and which
has been outlined above.

1
It was hoped that, as a result, exports would reach a level of at
least $120 million in the year ending 30 June 1948. The remainder of
the balance of payments would then be made up by $35 million combined receipts from shipping, tourists and emigrant remittances, $35
million in Allied Surplus Property credits, a $12 million Export-Import
Bank credit, receipts of $12 million from the sale in Greece of remaining
U.N.R.R.A. supplies and $240 million of direct U.S. aid. See Report
of the American Economic Mission, op. cit., p. 902.

CHAPTER III
EMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYMENT ORGANISATION
At present levels of economic development and activity,
Greece has a substantial manpower surplus. This is reflected
both in unemployment and in underemployment and results in
seriously depressed living standards for most of the population.
The employment problem is, indeed, one of the most serious
problems that the country has to face.
This situation, while considerably aggravated by the war
and post-war dislocations, antedates both. 1 Greece has always
had a population surplus and has always been an exporter of
labour. The point is important, for the existence of a manpower
surplus has strongly influenced Greek thinking and Greek
legislation on employment matters and accounts in large
measure for the eleemosynary approach which has been adopted
to these questions.
The Employment Situation
In the absence of a recent census or of adequate employment
statistics, the magnitude of the current employment problem
can only be estimated. Neither the number of persons drawing
unemployment benefits nor the number registered for work
with the public employment offices can be taken as an absolute
—or even approximate—measure of unemployment. The unemployment insurance system, described in Chapter V, covers
only a part of the wage and salary earning population and the
geographical coverage of the employment offices is limited.
Moreover, while the employment service has a legal monopoly
of placements, many of those not covered by unemployment
insurance do not, in fact, register with an employment office
until after they have located their own jobs. Others, of known
1
However, Ministry of Labour figures indicate that in the sixteen
major industrial areas of the country, employment in 1946 was 386,262
as compared with 525,552 in 1940, a decline of 26 per cent.

50

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

leftist views, apparently do not register at all and the Mission
was informed of a sort of unofficial employment market which
has grown up among them and which avoids use of the State
placement machinery. 1
From 30 June 1946—when the present employment office
system became operative—to 31 July 1947, a total of 115,479
persons registered for work with the public employment offices.
During the same period, 49,092 placements were made (a ratio
to registrations of 42 per cent.). These figures, on the placement side, indicate a sluggish labour market, since a single
individual may have been placed a number of times in jobs
of short duration. But the number of registrants represents
no more than a fraction of those actually unemployed.
No official data exist on the current size of the labour force
or the number of persons actively seeking work. The best
available information is from the sample survey, already
mentioned in Chapter II, conducted by the Allied Mission for
Observing the Greek Elections in the summer of 1946 and later
analysed by a group of competent American statisticians. 2
The Greek population was then estimated to be 7,257,000, of
whom 5,235,000 were fourteen years of age or over and therefore
legally eligible, under Greek law, for inclusion in the labour
force. Of these, 2,653,000, or 51 per cent., were estimated to
be actually in the labour force, that is, either gainfully employed
or actively seeking work. Of this number, 197,000, or 7 per
cent., were actively looking for jobs and were thus unemployed
in the strictest sense of the term.
Table VII gives somewhat fuller particulars. In view of the
method used (a sample, experience, the individual characteristics being based directly on the replies of the persons
interviewed, without any check), this percentage may be taken
as providing some indication of the extent of unemployment.
It should also be remembered that the arrival of refugees from
the parts of the country where civil war is in progress has
resulted in a substantial increase in the number of persons who
1
The Mission was informed that when the Ministry of Labour
undertook a census of employment and unemployment in 12 towns of
northern Greece in September 1947, the unemployed were told
by Communist representatives that they would be sent to concentration
camps or forced labour if they registered. Large numbers accordingly
boycotted the census, and its results could not be used as a measure
of unemployment.
2
See above, p. 26.

51

EMPLOYMENT

have lost their usual occupation and are seeking employment
in other regions.
TABLE

VIL

AGED

LABOUR

1 4 YEARS

FORCE

STATUS

AND OVER,

OF GREEK

POPULATION,

1 5 J U L Y - 7 AUGUST 1 9 4 6

(1,000's)
In the labour force
Age group and sex

Total

Not at
At work work,
but
or with seeking
a job
work

Not in the labour force
In
school

Housewives

Others

899
183
716

14 years and over .
Male
Female . . . .

5,235
2,537
2,698

2,466
2,032
434

197
147
50

282
175
107

1,391

14-19 years . . .
Male
Female . . . .

1,000
479
521

360
262
98

40
20
20

241
143
98

34

20-39 years . . .
Male
Female . . . .

2,205
1,056
1,149

1,150
926
224

101
78
23

41
32
9

639

40-59 years . . .
Male
Female . . . .

1,347
683
664

705
618
87

45
40
5

531

60 years and over.
Male
Female . . . .

683
319
364

251
226
25

11
9
2

187

1,391

34

639

531

187

325
54
271
274
20
254
66
25
41
234
84
150

Source : Journal of the American Statistical Association, loc. cit.

Unemployment is only one aspect of the problem presented
by the limited economic opportunities in Greece. Underemployment is also a major problem, particularly in agriculture,
although it is by no means confined to that industry. Redundant workers are, in fact, the rule throughout the whole Greek
economy.
In agriculture, at least one third of those engaged are underemployed. The F.A.O. Mission for Greece estimated that, even
with a considerable expansion of arable land as a result of water
development projects, agriculture would require about 40 per
cent, of the working force, as compared with the 60 per cent.
it absorbs at present. 1 The people stay on the land today,
1

Cf. Report of the F.A.O. Mission for Greece, op. cit., pp. 21 and 162.

52

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

not because they are fully occupied in working it, but because
there are no alternative opportunities. The results, in terms •
of low income levels, have been described in an earlier chapter. 1
It is less easy to estimate the degree of underemployment
in non-agricultural activities because of their variety and
complexity. Certainly it is large in business, trade and some
of the overcrowded professions, such as law. No one can visit
Greece without being impressed by the hordes of petty traders,
most of whom serve no real economic function. Even in
manufacturing there is some underemployment; the Mission
was informed by numerous employers that they had more
people on their rolls than they needed and, in a few instances,
that veterans were kept on the payroll but told not to come to
work.
Another cause of underemployment is the fact that some of
the most important branches of Greek industry deal with the
processing of agricultural products and are therefore largely
seasonal. This applies, for instance, to the tobacco industry,
fruit drying and packing, fruit and tomato canning, and silk
winding. As an example, in 1947 tobacco workers in the
Salónica area had only 2% months' employment in the year,
and even in more normal years they have not had more than
5 months' employment.
The problems resulting from the over-all manpower surplus
are aggravated by severe shortages of almost all skilled labour.
The Greek labour force suffered a serious dilution of its skilled
sector during the war and occupation. Many skilled workers
were among the victims of starvation and of enemy action.
Many lost their skill, either because, in keeping with forced
changes in the structure of the economy, they shifted to other
lines of activity, or lost their employment, or because they went
into the mountains where their skills were unused. As skilled
workers disappeared, their places were not filled by young men.
For more than six years there was no regular intake of young
learners into industry, nor were there any training activities,
and a large replacement deficit was thus built up. In many
industries today this shortage of skilled workers inhibits further
expansion and prevents the re-employment of thousands of
unskilled workers. One of the most serious requirements in
1

See Chapter II, p. 27.

EMPLOYMENT

53

Greece today—and one which is further considered below—is
an expanded programme of vocational training for young
persons and adults alike.
The major employment problems so briefly described above
can be solved neither easily nor quickly. Absorption of those
at present unemployed and of the seriously underemployed
surplus agricultural population would require a very considerable expansion of non-agricultural employment. While such
an expansion is certainly possible under favourable conditions,
it can be achieved only with careful planning and over a period
of years. In the meantime, it may be necessary to seek a
temporary solution of the problem along other lines.
Employment Planning
The I.L.O. Mission was not called upon to make recommendations concerning the long-run economic development of
Greece. It was, however, bound to give some consideration to
the social aspects of any such development schemes, inasmuch
as it is a responsibility of the I.L.O., under its Constitution, to
examine and consider economic and financial policies in the
light of the social objectives for which it stands. Both the
U.N.R.R.A. and the F.A.O. Missions have, in fact, already
outlined broad programmes of industrial and trade development
which, if implemented over a period of years, would effect a
reasonably permanent solution of the employment problem.
In conjunction with the Greek Government, the American
Mission for Aid to Greece is engaged in similar planning. This
is all to the good. Greater use could, however, be made of
employers' and workers' representatives in the development of
these long-range plans, and the Government might consider the
establishment of tripartite machinery for this purpose. Moreover, the Ministry of Labour (and particularly its Employment
Division), which is charged by law with the employment planning
function, does not seem to be brought sufficiently into the
economic planning activities of the Ministries of Reconstruction,
National Economy and Co-ordination. As a result, its own
planning activities are undeveloped and are more largely concerned with alleviating the conditions of the unemployed
through pension schemes and the like than they are with the
positive aspects of employment expansion. The Ministry
charged with employment planning, the transfer of workers,

54

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

the control of the labour market and social security should
logically play a major role in the development of economic
programmes.
Planned Emigration
No country willingly deprives itself of its people by sending
them abroad, to whatever destination. Nevertheless, in the
past comparatively large numbers of Greek workers have
sought to improve their condition by emigrating, and in view
of Greece's present difficulty in providing full employment for
the whole of its population, both rural and urban, under conditions assuring a decent livelihood, emigration is again a solution
which may have to be considered. The establishment in 1947
of a Migration Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
together with the setting up of a special committee to lay down
guiding principles for an emigration policy, indicate that the
problem is already receiving the attention of the Government.
Clearly, emigration is not the only answer to the economic
and social problems of a country such as Greece, since it would
be rash to assert that the population has passed the optimum
size and that all the country's available resources have been
fully developed. A number of studies recently made have, in
fact, shown that a very substantial contribution to the creation
of employment opportunities and the raising of standards of
living could be made by planned economic development of
national resources, both in agriculture and industry, and by the
use of improved agricultural methods. As a temporary expedient, however, for providing an immediate alleviation of the
urgent problem of unemployment, recourse to emigration
might be facilitated by the manpower shortage from which
other countries are at present suffering. Moreover, emigration
would serve today, as it has done in the past, a dual purpose.
It would help both to relieve the unemployment problem at
home and to increase remittances from Greeks living abroad,
thus making a twofold contribution to strengthening the
domestic economy.
The prospect of a permanent loss of Greek manpower as
a result of migration for settlement to distant countries may
be regarded with some misgivings. However, it should be
remembered that under present circumstances a choice is in
fact open as between migration for settlement to oversea
countries which are still underpopulated, and temporary

55

EMPLOYMENT

migration in the form of manpower loans to those European
countries which are at present seeking labour. The encouragement by organised planning of migration movements of this
latter type might, indeed, prevent the spontaneous development of uncontrolled emigration among underprivileged sections
of the population seeking a better life, such as characterised the
migration movements of the early twentieth century. Furthermore, the two alternatives are not necessarily mutually exclusive,
since oversea migration might be desirable for other elements
of the population and might serve the national interest in different ways, for instance, by the development of trade relations.
In any event, if the Greek Government were to decide to
have recourse again to emigration as a means of alleviating
the country's present economic difficulties, it must be planned
in accordance with a sound programme, and in drawing up
such a programme some lessons may be learnt from a survey
of the spontaneous emigration movements of the past.
The statistics available are not precise enough to give a
reliable indication of the total number of Greek emigrants and
the number of those who have settled permanently abroad.
The figures diner widely according to the statistical method
applied. The data which do exist, however, are sufficient to
indicate the main streams of emigration from Greece, and their
characteristic features.
Setting aside emigration to other Mediterranean countries
and, in particular, to Egypt—a form of settlement in neighbouring and closely related countries which has continued more or
less constantly*—there have been several changes in the
nature and direction of the stream of Greek emigration.
The first period was that of oversea emigration directed
almost entirely to the United States. During the first quarter
of the present century the United States acted as a magnet
for those Greeks who wished to better their situation. The
official Greek statistics show that of 402,538 persons who went
overseas between 1900 and 1921, 389,993 went to the United
States. 3 A few years later the United States quota law of
1924, under which the present Greek quota of immigration
1

In 1930, there were just over 76,000 Greeks in Egypt.

NATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E :

World

Statistics

Reports, Series O, No. 6 (Geneva, 1936).
2
Statistical Yearbook of Greece, 1939, p . 435.

of

Aliens,

Cf. INTERStudies

and

56

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

visas is 307 per year, switched the stream of migration into
entirely different channels and drastically curtailed oversea
migration. Greek emigration movements in other directions
were scattered and fragmentary. Emigration to the other
big underpopulated countries does not appear to have been on
a substantial scale, even after the United States had practically
closed its doors to Greek immigrants. In Australia, for instance,
the general census of 1933 showed about 5,600 Greeks in the
population 1 , while between 1931 and 1938, 2,598 persons
emigrated to Australia and 1,105 were repatriated, thus representing a net emigration of 1,493 persons.2 Emigration to
Canada and Argentina was on a similar scale, while that to
South Africa and Brazil appears to have been even smaller.3
The emigrants who went to far distant countries were,
however, not entirely lost to the home country. Many returned
a few years later. The net emigration figures are substantially
lower ; it is estimated that between 1921 and 1928, 55 per cent.
of persons who emigrated overseas returned to Greece. From
1930 onwards improved statistical methods, making a clearer
distinction between emigrants and tourists, show that out
of a total of 100,387 persons who emigrated overseas from
Greece, net emigration, i.e., the excess of emigration over
repatriation, amounted to 28,723 persons for the whole of the
10-year period preceding the war. The average loss to Greece
was therefore 2,872 nationals per year. 4
As regards continental migration within Europe, owing to
the lack of accurate statistical records at the frontiers, the
available information is unreliable up to 1931. The period
between 1931 and 1939, for which fairly precise figures are
available, is characterised in all countries by large-scale repatriation due to the economic depression in Europe. In the
case of Greece, indeed, there was an unfavourable balance of
migration during this period—92,884 repatriations compared
with 50,115 departures, resulting in a population increase of
42,769 Greek nationals due to migration, although against this
must be set a net emigration figure of 60,373 aliens.
1
2
3

154.

4

World Statistics of Aliens, op. cit., p. 154,
Statistical Yearbook of Greece, 1932 to 1939.
World Statistics of Aliens, op. cit. See tables on pp. 75, 93,116 and
Calculation based on data published in INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
: Year Book of Labour Statistics, 1945-1946, table XXVI, p. 240.

OFFICE

EMPLOYMENT

57

Even during the previous decade it does not appear that a
very large number of Greeks sought employment opportunities
on the European continent, except perhaps in the neighbouring
Balkan countries in the normal course of the constant border
migration movements which take place virtually everywhere
when not specifically prevented. At the close of the first
World War and for about ten years afterwards, France admitted
an enormous number of foreign workers to meet its very great
need of labour for reconstruction ; but these included very few
Greeks.1 At the time of the census of 8 March 1931 there
were in France, out of a total of 1,599,224 foreign workers,
10,447 Greeks, and out of a total of 126,497 naturalised workers,
921 Greeks. The census of 8 March 1936 showed only 9,080
Greek workers left in France, in addition to 1,427 naturalised
Greek workers, out of a total of 1,245,476 foreign workers and
258,686 naturalised workers.
Turning now to the structure of Greek emigration, there
are two distinguishing features in oversea emigration : firstly,
the emigrants were almost exclusively young men or boys
(female emigrants formed only 10 per cent, of the total,
and even less at the beginning) ; and, secondly, the emigrants
were of peasant origin. The first characteristic explains the
large volume of remittances sent back to the home country
by emigrants who had left their families behind. The second
is in marked contrast with the distribution of the emigrants
in the countries in which they settled. Although at times
whole villages in Epirus were left empty because their inhabitants had emigrated to the United States, practically none of
these emigrants settled on the land. Less than 1 per cent, of
Greek immigrants in the United States were classified in agricultural occupations by the United States census of 1930.

1
At an earlier date, however, during the first World War, there
was a short period of Greek emigration to France, the French authorities,
in conjunction with the French consulates, having made arrangements
for the recruitment of Greek workers for French armament works.
Under these arrangements, between July 1915 and the end of the war,
nearly 20,000 Greek workers were brought to France, mostly Turkish
subjects who had taken refuge in the Aegean Islands. It is not possible,
on the basis of the statistics available, to make a distinction between
Greeks who were Turkish nationals and who automatically acquired
Greek nationality after the Treaty of Lausanne, and Turkish subjects
proper, so that there is no means of ascertaining the number of these
workers who remained in France after the war.

5

58

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Most of them were established in the cities as small tradesmen,
in the hotel and restaurant business, as confectioners, hairdressers or artisans.
With regard to migration within the European continent,
in France, the country in which it can most readily be studied,
Greek immigrants included a larger female element : in 1936
women formed 17 per cent, of all Greek workers in France,
apart from those women who came to settle in France as members
of a worker's family. The distribution of the Greek immigrants,
as compared with that of the other groups of foreign workers,
also presents certain peculiar features, as shown in tables VIII
and IX.
The first striking feature to be noted is the very small
proportion of Greeks engaged in agriculture and mining, both
activities in which foreign labour was urgently needed in France
throughout the period between the two world wars, whereas
in 1936 the demand for labour in manufacturing industry had
fallen considerably owing to the economic depression. At that
time 22.3 per cent, of the foreign workers were employed
in agriculture, including only 4 per cent, of the Greek
workers (only 1.7 per cent, in 1931 and 1.8 per cent, in 1926).
The most conspicuous feature, however, is the extremely high
proportion of Greeks engaged in commercial and other
similar activities, in particular as compared with other foreign
workers.
These remarks would appear to show that the development
of emigration along planned lines and the training of emigrants
would help to adapt the Greek emigration movement more
closely to the economic needs of the immigration countries
than was the case with unplanned emigration, and to increase
the acceptability of the emigrants, without prejudice to the
Greek interests referred to below.
At the present time a planned programme for Greek emigration must necessarily be drawn up within the framework of
international migration planning. This is essential so that
Greece may compete successfully with other countries for the
employment opportunities for its surplus manpower offered
by immigration countries, and also so that Greek emigrants
may enjoy the protection of any international arrangements
made to ensure satisfactory working and living conditions for
migrant workers.

59

EMPLOYMENT

TABLE VIII.

ALIENS, INCLUDING GREEKS, WORKING IN FRANCE
ON 8 MARCH 1931 AND 8 MARCH 1936
1931

1936

Branch of activity
Greeks

Fishery
Agriculture and forestry
Mining and quarries . .
Manufacturing industry
Transport and handling
of goods
Commerce, banking,
entertainment . . .
Liberal professions. . .
Personal and domestic
Public services

Greeks

All aliens

4
179
289
5,922

596
249,646
166,577
782,637

2
380
163
4,414

639
278,211
103,380
494,822

563

76,211

434

66,908

2,516
461

156,001
42,360

2,725
344

144,053
40,817

441
72

69,027
56,169

568
50

67,888
48,758

10,447

1,599,224

9,080

1,245,476

. . . .

Total ,

All aliens

TABLE IX. NUMBER OF GREEKS PER 10,000 FOREIGN WORKERS
IN THE MAIN BRANCHES OF ACTIVITY IN FRANCE
ON 6 MARCH 1926, 8 MARCH 1931 AND 8 MARCH 1936
Branch of activity

Fishery
Agriculture and forestry
Mining and quarries
Manufacturing industry
Transport and handling of goods .
Commerce, banking, entertainment
Liberal professions
Personal and domestic services . .
Public services
All branches

1926

1931

1936

96
10
44
95
95
143
110
56
37

67
7
17
75
74
161
109
64
13

31
14
16
89
65
189
84
84
10

79

65

73

Source : Tables based on Résultats statistiques du recensement général de la population,
census taken on 6 March 1926 (Imprimerie nationale, Paris, 1928-1931), 8 March 1931
(Paris, 1936) and 8 March 1936 (Paris, 1943). See the fifth part of Volume I: " Etrangers
et naturalisés ".

One of the agencies for the international co-ordination of
national plans is the I.L.O. Permanent Migration Committee.
A representative of Greece attended the first session of this
Committee, held in Montreal in August 1946. If Greek migration movements were to be resumed, Greece would certainly
be interested in the successful implementation of the proposals

60

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

laid before the second session (February 1948) 1 , in particular
the proposals concerning revision of the Migration for Employment Convention, 1939—an instrument which, if widely ratified
by immigration countries, would afford very valuable protection
for migrant workers—and the drawing up of a Model Agreement
to be used by Governments in negotiating bilateral agreements concerning manpower exchanges and including provisions
to safeguard the interests of foreign workers in the country
of immigration, while at the same time protecting the legitimate
interests of the country's own workers.
Furthermore, Greece is one of the countries which agreed
to take part in the meeting convened in Rome in JanuaryFebruary 1948 to examine the manpower situation in connection
with the Marshall Plan, and to consider, in particular, manpower
requirements, a census of manpower available in other countries
to meet these requirements, and methods of adapting available
manpower to occupational needs. Greece is also participating
in the work of the European Economic Commission of the United
Nations, and in this connection again, some of the aspects of
migration problems are being studied by a subcommittee.
At the present time, therefore, the Greek Government has
ample opportunities of defining its attitude towards migration
and of stating its desires so that they may be taken into account
in framing the general plans which are now under discussion.
In addition to participation in international negotiations,
however, thorough preparations would also be needed on the
national plane. The maximum benefits will accrue from
emigration only if it is carefully planned and co-ordinated.
Despite the Greek manpower surplus, there are, as already
noted, serious shortages in many skilled occupations. An
emigration programme must be a part of an over-all manpower
programme designed to ameliorate both surplus and shortage
conditions. Moreover, in a world where so many barriers are
raised to migration, only a carefully conceived programme can
hope to succeed.
Such a programme should be voluntary in the sense that no
person unwilling to migrate should be forced to do so. But
it should be consciously designed to encourage the migration
of surplus manpower and to discourage the migration of needed
1
The Greek* Government was also represented at the second session
of this Committee.

EMPLOYMENT

61

skilled workers. It should be developed jointly by the Ministries
of Labour and of Foreign Affairs, and the recent establishment
of a Migration Division in the latter Ministry, mentioned
above, may facilitate such joint action. Consultation with
representatives of employers and workers would also be necessary
to the development of a sound programme.
The details of such a programme cannot be laid down in
advance. Attention should, however, be directed to at least
five points :
(1) the best means of facilitating the entrance of Greek
nationals into manpower shortage countries, particularly under
bilateral agreements ;
(2) the ascertainment of the number of people desirous of
emigrating and available for emigration without prejudice to the
needs of the Greek economy (in respect of age, sex and skill
characteristics, etc.) ;
(3) the general principles which should govern emigrant
selection, with a view both to the needs of the Greek economy
and to those of the countries of immigration ;
(4) the desirability of instituting an emigrant training
programme to increase acceptability in other countries, and
particularly to enable the emigrants to adapt themselves to
the new living and working conditions which they will find
in those countries ; and
(5) the possibility of State assistance for emigrants in the
form of travel subsidies or removal allowances.
At the present time, when many other countries are experiencing serious manpower shortages, the prospects for the
success of such a programme are particularly good.
Organisation of Employment
Greek law comprehensively regulates the employment
contract both at the point of hiring and of separation, the
basic provisions being incorporated in Act No. 118 of 13 February
1945.1 This Act, which established the present system of
unemployment insurance, also revised and codified a number
1
Government Gazette, Part I, No. 26, 13 February 1945, pp. 75-78 :
cf. L.S., 1945, Gr. 1.

62

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

of earlier provisions respecting employment and the employment contract. 1 Under its terms, " all undertakings and
works, including those carried on by the State, a commune or
other public body, shall be bound to engage through the employment office for their district all those of their employees who
are to be employed under a contract of employment in private
law in the districts covered by the provisions of this Act " (section 8, paragraph 4). Heavy penalties are provided for violations,
an offending employer risking imprisonment and fine as well as
being bound to pay to the Unemployment Fund a sum equal
to the total remuneration of the employees who have been
wrongfully employed.
Act No. 118 2 applied in the first instance only to industrial
undertakings in the province of Attica. Provision was made,
however, for its extension through orders issued on the recommendation of the Minister of Labour, after consultation with
the governing body of the Unemployment Fund. By a Legislative Decree of 8 May 1946 the terms of the Act were accordingly
extended to commercial establishments, to artisan and handicraft
shops, and to other small undertakings, and its geographical
coverage has been enlarged as rapidly as possible.
Offices of the Unemployment Fund were operating in October
1947 in twenty-one areas, including a number of the islands,
while employment offices were operating in thirteen localities
outside the Athens-Piraeus metropolitan area. In the metropolitan district there were five functioning employment offices
(Athens, Piraeus, Nea Ionia, Rouf and Kallithea), as shown in
table X. These work in co-operation with the Athens offices
of the Unemployment Fund and, in general, an attempt has
been made to correlate the expansion of the two services.
However, employment offices have been established in Eleusis
1

Notably Act No. 2112 of 11 March 1920 respecting obligatory
notice of the termination of the contract of employment of private
employees (cf. L.S., 1920, Gr. 3), as amended by Act No. 4558 of 19 April
1930 (L.S., 1930, Gr. 2), by Act No. 6299 of 29 September 1934 (L.S.,
1934, Gr. 10) and by Emergency Act of 19 November 1935 (L.S., 1935,
Gr. 8) ; and certain provisions of the following Acts for the regulation
of the labour market and the establishment of a system of public employment offices : Act No. 4819 of 14 July 1930, Act No. 5288 of 31 August
1931, Act No. 5598 of 27 August 1932 (L.S., 1932, Gr. 8), Decree of
8 October 1932 (L.S., 1932, Gr. 7), Emergency Act of 10 June 1935
(L.S., 1935, Gr. 4), and Emergency Act No. 547 of 15 March 1937
(L.S., 1937, Gr. 2).
2
For further references to this Act, see the section relating to unemployment insurance in Chapter V, pp. 173 et seq.

63

EMPLOYMENT

(near Athens) and in Kerkyra (Corfu) without corresponding
Unemployment Fund offices, and, on the other hand, local
offices of the Unemployment Fund exist in Verria, Edessa,
Kavalla and Serres in the north, in Naoussa, and in the islands
of Samos, Chios and Syra, with no employment offices. In
Crete, there are two Unemployment Fund offices and only one
employment office.

TABLE X .

EMPLOYMENT

AND

UNEMPLOYMENT

FUND

OFFICES

AND PERSONNEL

Locality

Nea Ionia. . . .
Rouf
Kallithea . . . .
Salónica
Chalkis

. . . .

Kalamata....
Canea (Crete) . .
Kerkyra (Corfu) .
Volo
Trikkala
. . . .
Mytilene

. . . .

Employment
office

No. of
personnel

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

12
6
3
3
4
1
4
1
4
4
2
1
3
2
1
1
1
2

.

Heraklion, Crete .

Total. . . .

18

55

Unemployment
Fund office

(

No. oí
personnel

Yes

165

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

19
8
16
13
5
5

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

11
7
7
5
3
7
4
5
4
8
7
3
7
8

21

317

Source: Ministry of Labour.

The orderly extension and application of Act No. 118 have
been complicated—particularly in the north—by civil and
political disturbances, but it is undesirable that an office of the
Unemployment Fund should ever be established in advance of
an operating employment office. Section 10 of Act No. 118

64

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

provides, for example, that " the Fund shall be bound to provide
employment through the employment offices for unemployed
persons supported by the Fund, and if it is unable to do so to
pay them unemployment benefit ". Presumably the object is
first of all to assist the worker to secure employment (through
a public employment office) and only if that fails, to pay him
an unemployment benefit.
Similarly, under section 16 of the Act, the Fund is bound " t o
send every day to the competent employment office . . . a
return of persons declared as unemployed ", while the employment offices are bound to send daily to the Fund a list of unemployed persons who have been offered employment. This
provision can hardly be normally applied unless the employment office functions in close proximity to an Unemployment
Fund office.
Again, it is difficult for a proper work test to be administered
under such circumstances, and the manner in which the offices
have been opened reinforces an impression gained otherwise,
namely, that the primary emphasis both in the legislation and
in its application is upon the payment of benefits rather than
upon the expansion of employment. This is always a danger
when the employment office function is so clearly subordinated to the Unemployment Fund as it is in Act No. 118.
The employment offices are partly financed by the Fund and
sometimes staffed by it. At present they function more largely
as clerical adjuncts to the payment of unemployment compensation than as constructive employment services. There seems
to be no systematic attempt on the part of the employment
offices to open up job opportunities or to participate actively
in local employment planning.
Moreover, the placement function itself is similarly handicapped. Section 9 of Act No. 118 provides, among other
things, that " fifty per cent, of the unemployed persons placed
in employment by the employment offices must be unemployed
persons in receipt of benefit from the Unemployment Fund ".
However desirable it may be to take all reasonable steps to
relieve the financial drain on the Fund, a requirement as absolute
as this leaves little room for the development of selective
placement procedures by the employment offices and once more
emphasises the position of the employment office as an administrative branch of the Unemployment Fund. It might be
more in accordance with the generally accepted principles of

EMPLOYMENT

65

social policy to give priority to unemployed workers who have
no right to unemployment benefit.
The emphasis is continued in the regulations governing
placement. Selection within the group of unemployment
benefit recipients is made in the light of the duration of their
unemployment and their social and financial situation, particularly in respect of family responsibilities. Occupational
skill or suitability is considered only on the basis of the occupational history. Clearly, under present conditions, it is
difficult to apply improved methods of selection or placement
—in job analysis, on the one hand, or in occupational tests or
interviewing aids on the other—or to develop vocational guidance
and employment counselling as a general practice.
However, Act No. 118 has been in operation for a relatively
short time and a longer experience with it is desirable.
Moreover, the magnitude of the unemployment problem at
present makes emphasis upon it almost inevitable. In the
circumstances, the Mission does not propose any sweeping
changes in the present legislation, but suggests that the following improvements might be considered :
(1) Operating employment offices should be established as
soon as practicable in all areas in which there are now local
offices of the Unemployment Fund.
(2) In all future geographical extensions of Act No. 118,
employment offices should be opened simultaneously or in
advance of Unemployment Fund offices. It may be desirable,
in some cases, to have employment offices where there are no
branches of the Unemployment Fund. The reverse cannot
be the case.
(3) An attempt should be made to reduce the present overemphasis on the payment of benefits and to strengthen the
positive functions of the employment offices. A number of
steps might be taken in this direction under existing legislation.
The employment service function is unquestionably understaffed in relation to the unemployment compensation function.
Stronger financial support should be given to the employment
offices and the existing staff should be increased. This, with
improved staff training and guidance in employment service
operations, would permit more emphasis to be placed upon the
development of job opportunities, upon employment counselling
of unemployed workers, and upon better selection and placement. It would not appear, at present, that the employ-

66

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

ment offices are giving adequate service either to workers or
to employers.
The inadequacy of the existing employment offices is particularly serious in view of their legal monopoly of placement in
the areas to which Act No. 118 has been applied. In all of
these areas, covering about 90 per cent, of the industrial and
commercial employment in Greece, employers are prohibited
from hiring directly and are required to secure workers solely
through the public employment offices. The only legal exceptions to this rule arise " if the employment office is unable,
within a time limit of five days, to find the number of employees
or the skilled employees required " . i In such event, the
employer may hire directly, notifying the employment office of
the names and trades of the employees so engaged.
Employers are, moreover, normally bound to accept the
particular workers referred to them by the employment office.
The public employment office is, by decree, made " responsible
for judging the suitability of the persons provided ". The
employer may, however, appeal to the labour inspector in
charge against any action of the employment office, and adjustments are, in fact, made when a worker is regarded by an
employer as unsuitable. In actual practice, the control is
somewhat less absolute than it is in law. Nevertheless, it is
considerable and the question naturally arises as to the adequacy
of the employment service for the exercise of so important a
monopoly. On this point, as already indicated above, it does
not seem that the employment offices as at present constituted
are competent to control the employment market in an effective
manner. It might have been much better, indeed, to have
started more modestly with the employment service on a
voluntary basis, without completely eliminating direct hiring.
Many critical comments were in fact received by the Mission
from employers on the type of service actually rendered. But,
as already suggested, longer experience is required before it
can be decided whether the present compulsory system can
be adjusted so as to eliminate the difficulties to which reference
1
Act No. 118, section 9, paragraph 5. However, there is confusion on
this point. Under the Decree of 28 February 1934 (concerning the
application of section 13, paragraph 2, of the Decree of 8/10 October
1932, for the codification in a single text of Act No. 5288), which remains
in force, employers may hire directly within 48 hours and, in emergencies, within 24 hours, if the employment office is unable to fill their
orders. In this instance, enquiry among employers revealed that some
waited five days while others waited only 48 hours.

EMPLOYMENT

67

has been made. Serious efforts are required, however, to raise
the professional level of the staff and to expand and improve
the service along the lines indicated above. The Government
might also wish to consider the possibility of sending some of
its employment office officials abroad to acquaint them with the
operation of more completely developed employment services.
Additional employment controls exist in the matter of the
termination of employment contracts, and the legal provisions
governing this aspect of employment go well beyond those in
force in most other countries. 1 Under their terms, which differ
for salaried employees and for workers, periods of notice are
specified for dismissal and dismissal wages are fixed.
Termination of Contract
A salaried employee (unless engaged on a contract of fixed
duration) who has been employed for two months or more can
be dismissed only after a specified period of notice and upon
payment of a specified dismissal wage. The prescribed period
of notice varies from 30 days for employees who have completed
less than one year's service to a maximum of two years for those
who have completed 27 or more years of service. The required
period of notice, according to the length of the employee's
service, is as follows : under one year, 30 days ; one to two
years, 60 days ; two years, 3 months ; four years, 4 months ;
six years, 5 months ; eight years, 6 months ; ten years, 7 months.
For each year of service in excess of ten, the period of notice
is increased by 30 days up to the maximum of two years. The
required dismissal wage is one quarter of the employee's salary,
for a period equal to that of the required notice.
Under Emergency Act No. 424/1941, enforced during the
occupation and until the adoption of Act No. 118/1945, employers were prohibited from discharging any worker or employee without the permission of the Ministry of Labour.
The object of this measure was to thwart the German recruitment of unemployed for work in German war factories. Most
employees in Greece have therefore served at least six or seven
1
These were originally embodied, for salaried employees, in Act
No. 2112 of 11 March 1920, the provisions of which were extended to
workers, domestic servants and craftsmen by a Royal Decree of 16/18
July 1920. These provisions were variously amended on 19 April 1930,
29 September 1934, 19 November 1935, and 15 March 1937, and were
then incorporated by reference (a confusing procedure, carried to the
extreme in Greek legislation) in Act No. 118 of 13 February 1945.

68

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

years, since dismissals were legally prohibited during the period
from 1941 to 1945, when Act No. 118 came into force. As a
result, the employer's obligations are so heavy that there are,
in fact, few dismissals of salaried employees. Moreover, the
employer's financial obligations on the termination of a work
contract are not discharged with his payment of the dismissal
wage. He is further required to contribute to the Unemployment Fund an amount equal to one month's salary of the
dismissed employee.1 Finally, in the event of the employer
failing to give the required notice, the employee may recover in
court his salary for the entire period during which notice was
required.
The protection afforded workers, craftsmen and servants
on dismissal is much less than that accorded salaried employees.
Where they are employed by industrial, manufacturing and
mining undertakings, the required notice is 5 days if they have
been employed at least two months but less than a year ;
8 days if they have been employed from one to two years ;
15 days for more than two years but less than five ; 30 days
for more than five years but less than ten ; and 60 days if
they have been employed for ten years or more. 2
The more favourable treatment of salaried employees in
this and other respects results in constant pressure by nearly
all occupational groups to be classed as employees. This
pressure is augmented by the fact that there is no clear definition
of " employee " and the question is almost constantly before
the courts in one form or another. The courts have not had
adequate legislative guidance for the determination of the highly
technical questions involved and have left far behind the original
definition written into Act No. 1234 of 31 March 1918 (an
Act respecting the position of salaried employees in case of
war). The whole subject is thus highly confused.
In ruling upon the specific issues which come before them,
the courts have apparently tended to give considerable weight
1

If the dismissed employee was originally recruited from among
those drawing benefit from the Unemployment Fund, the employer's
liabilities are further increased. He is then required to pay to the Fund
a sum equal to one day's wages for every six days worked by the employee
up to a maximum equal to two months', salary.
2
Employees and workers—as well as employers—are required by
law to give notice. In the case of the employee who resigns, the prescribed notice is one half of that required of the employer ; in that of
a worker, craftsman or domestic servant, it is identical with that required
of the employer.

EMPLOYMENT

69

to the intellectual—as opposed to the manual—content of the
work involved and to classify as employees those persons whose
occupations involve the performance of a considerable proportion of " mental " work. However, truck drivers and their
helpers and the practitioners of certain standard trades have,
at various times and places, been classified as employees, and
it is difficult to discover a clear line of principle in the numerous
decisions. Neither workers nor employers know exactly how
the law is to be interpreted in any given case.
The various restrictions upon the termination of the work
contract are not without their disadvantages. While it is
important to protect the employee against arbitrary dismissal
and against the financial hazards of unemployment, it would
appear that the legislation on this point now goes too far.
When taken together with the control of hiring, restrictions on
dismissals as far-reaching as those currently applicable to salaried
employees introduce rigidities into the employment market
and foster inefficiencies in the use of the labour force which
the Greek economy can ill afford to sustain.
Moreover, it seems that the desirable social objectives
sought through this legislation can best be secured today by
the improvement and strengthening of the unemployment
insurance system. It was one thing to require the payment of
substantial dismissal wages to certain groups of the population
before there was a comprehensive system of unemployment
compensation ; and Greek legislation on this point was very
progressive. It is quite another thing, however, to continue
that requirement for a special group after the adoption of a
general programme of unemployment compensation. Dismissal
wage systems should be designed in the latter circumstance
primarily to assist the worker or employee over the waiting
period before unemployment compensation can be claimed.
This matter is one which arouses special concern because
of the strictly limited resources of the Greek economy and the
consequent narrow limits within which charges for social purposes can be supported. In the light of this situation, the
legislation should be particularly careful to follow the general
principle of attempting to achieve maximum protection for
the largest possible numbers at a reasonable economic cost.
Until basic social security has been attained for the entire
population, it is difficult to justify unusually high levels of
security for special and limited groups. At present, salaried

70

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

employees have a degree, of dual protection against unemployment which does not seem justified either by the state of the
economy or by the degree of security afforded to other sections
of the population.
The Mission therefore wishes to draw attention to the
desirability of reviewing the present system, with special
reference to the following points :
(1) The requirement of payment by the employer to the
Unemployment Fund, in respect of each person discharged, of
the sums specified in section 9, paragraphs 6 and 7, of Act
No. 118 of 1945. The original purpose of this measure was
presumably to provide the Unemployment Fund with the funds
necessary to meet its immediate liabilities for the payment of
daily unemployment benefit, since during the initial period
after the Act came into force the Fund had not been able to
accumulate sufficient funds from the collection of ordinary
contributions. This is no longer the case today, and the Mission
therefore believes that it would be desirable to review the question, without, however, losing sight of the consequences of the
fact that the elimination of this requirement would to some
extent facilitate the dismissal of workers and employees.
(2) Subject to the readjustment of daily rates of unemployment benefit on the basis of actual earnings 1, consideration
might be given to a revision, first, of the statutory periods of
notice for the termination of the employment contract and,
secondly, of the dismissal wage due to the discharged workers
and employees on termination of the contract. The Mission
suggests that measures should be considered under which the
employer would make up the daily unemployment benefit over a
certain period to the full amount of the wage or salary received
at the time of dismissal.
The Contract of Employment for Special Categories of Persons
In addition to the general legislation already discussed,
there is a body of special legislation applicable to the hiring,
promotion and dismissal of several categories of war veterans. 2
1

See below, p. 198.
See, in particular, Act No. 28 of 31 October 1935 (protection of
veterans of the reserve corps) and its amendments ; Act of 24 January
1936 (Government Gazette A-50/1936) ; Act No. 244/1936 ; Act. No. 771/
1937 completing and codifying the above (Government Gazette A-349/
1937) ; and Legislative Decree No. 1040/1942 (Government Gazette
A-53/1942 and 245/1942).
2

EMPLOYMENT

71

Veterans of the Balkan War and the first World War who are
reservists and not members of the regular army or the State
police and who (a) have had two years of actual combat service,
or (b) have had six months of combat service and have disabilities contracted in the course of service, or (c) are war disabled,
regardless of length of service, are protected by one group of
laws. Under their terms, such veterans are compulsorily placed
in all public and private undertakings in the following proportions : one veteran in each establishment having from 15 to 30
employees ; two in each establishment having from 30 to 60
employees ; thereafter, 3 per cent, of the total number of
employees up to 300 and 1 per cent, of the number over 300.
The employer has no voice in the selection of such personnel
and is required to accept his quota regardless of whether, in
fact, he has any unfilled positions. As a result, in some instances
veterans have been added to the payroll, but instructed not to
report for work.
Nor can the employer terminate the contract in these
instances. Veterans of these categories can be dismissed only
by action of specially constituted boards which sit in the various
regions of the country. 1
Disabled veterans of the second World War are similarly
protected. Thus, public and private establishments are required
to accept one such disabled person if they have under 15 employees, two if they have from 15 to 35, three from 35 to 70
employees, and thereafter a number equal to 3 per cent, of
their working force. At the same time, preference in promotion
is decreed for such disabled veterans.
Employment preference for veterans has been almost
universal in all countries since the first World War, and the
extent of preference has, in many cases, been increased since
the last war. In few other instances, however, do the preferences granted approach those established in Greek legislation.
In the light of the current situation in Greece, it does not seem
that any change in this legislation can be made at present.
When both political and economic conditions have improved,
however, consideration might well be given to the question
whether this is in fact the best way to take care of handicapped
1
See Act No. 244/1936. The boards are composed of the president
of the court of first instance in the locality, as chairman, an official
of the Ministry of Labour, an employers' representative and a workers'
representative.

72

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

veterans, and to the possibility of introducing some form of
rehabilitation scheme. Such schemes have been successfully
developed in a number of countries for all classes of the disabled,
and have proved to be of the greatest value both for the persons
concerned and for the country as a whole.1
Additional Controls on the Employment Market
Before complete control over the employment market was
vested in the employment offices by giving them the monopoly
of placement operations, a system of quotas, or even the complete barring of admission to certain " saturated " occupations,
had been widely applied in Greece. This system has survived
the introduction of the new methods of control and operates side
by side with it on the employment market. The quota measures
were introduced either by law, as in 1928 in the case of workers
engaged in the preparatory handling of tobacco 2 , or by collective
agreement, as in the case of butchers. 3 The principles on which
such controls might be introduced by administrative decision
were clearly defined in Act No. 759 of 1937, which authorised the
Minister of Labour, after consultation with the local prefect,
the Chief of Police and a representative of the profession or
trade involved, to declare certain professions or trades " saturated " either in a particular locality or in the whole country,
and to prohibit further entrants into them for a specified time.
Restrictions of this kind have been introduced in a great
variety of trades and occupations, both manual and nonmanual. The groups to which they were applied included,
apart from the tobacco workers mentioned above, dockers in
the port of Piraeus in 1931 4 ; bakery workers 8 ; actors 6 ; hotel
employees'; tax employees 8 ; printers 9 ; and newspaper and
1

See INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E , Studies and Reports, Series E

(The Disabled), No. 7 : The Training and Employment of Disabled
Persons (Montreal, 1945).
2
Act No. 3460 of 1928.
3
Collective Agreement of 1 March 1944 ; cf. Government Gazette»
P a r t B , 125/1944.
4
Act No. 5167 of 1931.
6
Act No. 5598 of 1932, Legislative Decree of 8 February 1933 and
Act No. 2018 of 1939.
6
Act No. 5736 of 1933.
7
Act No. 394 of 1936.
8
Act No. 759 of 1937.
8
Act No. 1931 of 1939.

EMPLOYMENT

73

magazine vendors. 1 Controls were also applied in a number
of other occupations by collective agreement.
The most usual method of operating these employment
controls is through the issue to workers admitted to the trade
of employment cards or permits entitling them to take employment in undertakings in the occupation or industry in question.
As a rule the responsibility for issuing such cards or permits is
assigned to a special agency. In the case of tobacco workers,
for instance, the card is issued by the Tobacco Workers'
Insurance Fund, and, while tobacco warehousers and processors
may, under certain conditions, hire persons not possessing such
cards, they are bound to give preference in employment to card
holders. In the case of newsvendors the card is issued in the
first instance by the appropriate union and is validated by the
Ministry of Labour. Certain categories of hotel employees
also require employment permits which, in this instance, are
issued by the local labour inspectors upon presentation of police
and health certificates.8 The same applies to hairdressers and
bakery workers. This latter form of control, however, although
administratively similar to the quota measures, is based on
an entirely different principle and is designed to protect the
health of the public rather than to control the distribution of
labour on the employment market.
All residents of Greece are registered with the local police
and the presentation of a police identity card is a prerequisite
to placement and employment. This facilitates the identification of " undesirables " both by the employment offices and
by employers, and provides a potential basis for the restriction
of employment on political grounds. Since the employment
service possesses a legal monopoly of placement, a decision not
to place certain classes of persons may have far-reaching consequences.
Vocational Training
As already indicated, the shortage of skilled manpower in
Greece is a serious potential threat to all programmes of economic
expansion or of increased industrialisation. The Greeks have
1

Act No. 1093 of 1938.
Cf. Act of 19 November 1939 (Government Gazette, A-599/1935) ;
Act of 25 January 1936 (Government Gazette, A-53/1936) ; Act No. 394/
1936 (Government Gazette, A-558/1936) ; Decree of 3 April 1937 (Government Gazette, A-139/1937) ; Decree of 27 June 1937 (Government
Gazette, A-258/1937), among others.
2

6

74

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

traditionally been good and skilful workmen, but the working
population is now largely untrained ; its skilled component is
small and well above average age. Most of the highly trained
workmen upon whom industry depends today are over fifty
and many are over sixty years of age. No replacements are
being trained for them and the lack of training during the war
and occupation years has left a large deficit in skilled workers.
There are serious shortages throughout the economy in all
highly skilled occupations. How large the present deficits are
cannot be stated precisely, for the Government has made no
survey of the situation, but nearly every employer with whom
members of the Mission talked in Greece complained of his
inability to secure trained personnel. The situation is serious
enough today, but it will worsen with each passing year unless
vigorous action is taken.
One form of such action which appears to be necessary is
to organise pre-vocational training. To this end general
educational programmes in the upper forms of primary schools
and in secondary schools should be revised with a view to the
incorporation of elements of instruction and practical work
designed to give children a respect for and taste for manual
work, and thus to help to guide those with the necessary aptitudes into skilled occupations. 1
As regards vocational training and education programmes
proper, these developed relatively late in Greece. A few industrial establishments had adopted training programmes earlier,
but the movement really began with the enactment of the
Vocational Education Act, No. 5197 of 23 July 1931.2 This law
provided, for the first time, for some State support of vocational
training and laid a basis for a nation-wide network of vocational
schools.
Two types of schools were recognised by the law : trade
schools and trade continuation schools. The former were
regarded as full-time schools for the training of persons not yet
employed ; the latter as part-time schools of a modified apprenticeship type. Communes, chambers of commerce or industry,
and recognised associations in general were authorised to
establish and operate trade schools, subject to the approval of
1
See P a r t I I I of t h e Vocational Training Recommendation, 1939,
adopted by t h e 25th Session of t h e International Labour Conference,

Geneva,

1939

(INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

Vol. X X I V , No. 3, August 1939, p . 43).
2
Cf. L.S., 1931, Gr. 5.

OFFICE :

Official

Bulletin,

EMPLOYMENT

75

the Minister of National Economy. While the principal support
of such schools was to come from private sources, the Ministry
of National Economy was authorised to make grants to approved
schools.
Trade schools were not widely organised in Greece before
the war. There were, however, two important ones in the
Athens-Piraeus area, which were privately endowed—the Sevastopoulios Rural School of Athens and the Sivitanidios Public
School of Arts and Trades. Both were free schools and the
latter, founded in 1936, was particularly important as a training
centre for Greek industry. The largest school of its kind in the
Balkans and the third largest in all Europe, it had before the
war 800 full-time students and over 4,000 more in its night
school. It was excellently equipped and provided training in
the metal trades, carpentry, electricity, bookbinding and printing, and all of the standard skilled occupations. With the
outbreak of the war it was transformed into an ordnance repair
shop and used as such, first by the Greeks and then by the
Germans. What equipment was not thus worn out was
removed by the Germans at their withdrawal, and the school
plant is at present occupied by a Greek military unit.
One of the most urgent tasks in the whole field of training
is to re-equip and reopen this school. Its rehabilitation could
make a more immediate contribution to the rapid rebuilding
of the depleted reserves of trained manpower than any other
single thing that can be done. Many of the former staff of this
school are said to be still available in the Athens-Piraeus area
and a competent staff of instructors could quickly be assembled.
The management of the school is also ready to reopen it
at any time. Two things stand in the way : the necessity of
replacing tools and machines which are worn out or have been
removed ; and the military occupation of the building. In
view of the contribution which could be made to economic
recovery by the reopening of this institution, it is hoped that
the necessary equipment can be secured without delay and that
the school buildings can be soon evacuated by the military and
returned to their original use.
The trade continuation schools provided for in Act No. 5197
were more generally established. The law required that they
be set up by order of the Minister of National Economy, after
consultation with a specially constituted National Council of
Vocational Education, " provided that the economic conditions

76

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

admit thereof, in the chief town of every province and in towns
with a population of not less than 10,000, for the purpose of
providing continued practical and theoretical instruction for
employees in commerce, industry, handicrafts and any other
occupation". 1
Between fifty and sixty of such trade continuation schools
were established before the war, of which some twenty-five are
now in operation. They are, for the most part, night schools
and are mainly privately supported. The combined total of
all State grants for vocational education purposes was only
50 million drachmae in the fiscal year 1946-47, or $10,000
at the official rate of exchange. The remainder of the costs
is met by tuition charges ranging from $30 to $50 a year and
by the communes, employees' or employers' organisations
concerned.
Members of the Mission inspected one of the larger of these
trade continuation schools, run by the Chamber of Commerce
in Salónica. Classes were heavily attended 2 , and a broad
curriculum was being offered in standard secondary subjects
like algebra, foreign languages and Greek, as well as in technical
subjects like electricity and bookkeeping. As is usual with these
schools, the instruction was almost entirely theoretical, owing
to the absence of laboratory or mechanical equipment. This
is a serious disadvantage, which should be overcome in time.
While theoretical understanding is essential, most skilled
1
P a r t IV, section 11. The National Council of Vocational E d u c a tion was, under the law, constituted by a decision of the Minister of
National Economy. I t must be consulted on all matters relating to
trade continuation schools. It is composed at present of the SecretaryGeneral of the Ministry of National Economy, as chairman, a representative of the Federation of Greek Employers, t h e Secretary-General
of t h e Greek Confederation of Labour, a representative of t h e Technical
Chamber of Commerce, the Director of the National B a n k of Greece,
two industrialists, two engineers who were formerly directors of technical
schools, two university professors, a representative of t h e Ministry of
Education, and a representative of t h e Ministry of Transport. The
Ministry of Labour, which was not in existence when this law was
passed, but which is necessarily intimately concerned with the whole
manpower problem, is not represented on the Council.
2
All students in these schools are employed in local establishments.
Attendance is compulsory for all employees under the age of eighteen,
unless t h e y are in possession of a certificate of instruction a t least
equivalent to t h a t provided by the trade continuation school. The
obligation of compulsory attendance does not continue beyond three
years, with a maximum of 270 hours of instruction per year ( P a r t IV,
section 15).
For suggestions concerning day classes in working hours, see below,
p. 138.

EMPLOYMENT

77

trades can be properly learned only by combining theory and
practice. This is achieved to a certain extent under this
system, because of the fact that all students are employed and
many of them are therefore working as apprentices at the
trades they are studying. Such a combination is not universal,
however, and training results would undoubtedly be improved
if a more practical emphasis could be given to the curriculum.
There is no organised on-the-job training programme in
Greece, as there is in many other countries, whether for apprentices, for young learners or for adult workers, and this is a gap
which should not be left unfilled in the present situation. The
textile industry and a few of the larger industrial establishments
have training programmes of a sort, but these are not systematically developed, are usually aimed at the needs of a particular
establishment, and are not governed by any general standards.
As a result, the standardisation of trades and the consequent
interchangeability of skill from one industry to another (so
essential to a flexible labour force) is in large measure lacking
in Greece.
There are some obvious difficulties in the way of introducing
any general programme of on-the-job training. In the first
place, most of the units of Greek industry are too small to
support an adequate training programme. But this is not
universally the case and there are scores of individual establishments in the Athens-Piraeus area in which a start could be made.
Moreover, the disadvantages of small size can, in large measure,
be overcome by co-operative efforts and organisation.
A second, more immediate, difficulty may be presented by
the unavailability of skilled instructors. This, however, could
be overcome in the course of time by the training of a small,
selected group of foremen and master craftsmen for the purpose.
None of these obstacles appears to be insuperable, within the
bounds of Greek reconstruction plans, and expanded training
programmes are so essential to the country's economic development that no stone should be left unturned to promote them.
The Mission therefore makes the following observations and
recommendations on vocational training :
(1) Responsibility for all aspects of vocational training
should be vested in the Minister of Labour, and Act No. 5197
should be amended to accomplish this. While the disposition
of manpower questions necessarily affects the national economy,
and while full responsibility for all such questions might there-

78

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

fore be vested in the Ministry of National Economy, that has
not, in fact, been done. The Ministry of Labour has been
constituted as a specialised agency to deal with manpower
problems, and no portion of such problems should be outside
its competence. Vocational training is an integral aspect of
manpower supply and is intimately related to vocational
guidance and employment counselling and the general direction
of the labour force, which are the special province of the employment service. The direction of vocational training programmes
cannot successfully be divorced from other labour supply
questions, and the inadequacy of existing training efforts is
undoubtedly related to this fact.
(2) The Government should make every effort to reopen
and re-equip existing trade schools as rapidly as possible and
to open new schools or training centres where needed. The
continual use of such school facilities for military purposes is a
luxury which the economy cannot long afford to support.
(3) A comprehensive law for the regulation of apprenticeship
should be passed.
(4) A tripartite apprenticeship training council should be
set up under the direction of the Ministry of Labour for the
following purposes :
(a) to determine which skilled trades are critically short of
labour at the present time ;
(b) to advise the Ministry on the establishment of a general
code of standards for trade apprenticeship which will afford
the apprentices protection against exploitation and will
facilitate their transfer from one establishment to
another ;
(c) to advise the Ministry upon the establishment of specific
apprenticeship standards, including the content, methods
and duration of training for each trade in which this
system of training seems necessary. This might well be
approached by specialised subcommittees for each trade ;
and
(d) ' to assist the Ministry in eliciting the co-operation of
employers and workers for the development of experimental
programmes in these fields. A start could be made with a
limited number of co-operating establishments and trades,
the programme broadening out as experience is gained.

EMPLOYMENT

79

(5) Local tripartite apprenticeship committees should be
set up to supervise the progress of the apprentices and conduct
tests.
(6) As rapidly as budgetary considerations will permit,
State support for the trade continuation schools should be
increased.
(7) Consideration should also be given to the formulation
and implementation of vocational retraining programmes for
adults in order to facilitate the full rehabilitation of the unemployed and underemployed in nationally useful employment.
Such programmes should aim at establishing, or encouraging
industry to establish, employment training centres providing
both practical and theoretical instruction, where, by a short
period of training, the unemployed might gain the skill required
for those semi-skilled or skilled occupations in which there is a
labour shortage. To be fully successful, however, such programmes should include measures to adjust unemployment
allowances and replace them by training allowances at a higher
rate in order to encourage the unemployed to attend the centres.

CHAPTER IV
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT — THE REGULATIONS
AND THEIR ENFORCEMENT
General Characteristics of Labour Legislation
ENVELOPMENT

A study of Greek labour legislation leaves the impression
that considerable efforts have been made to create progressive
legislation in this sphere. It was generally agreed among those
who were interviewed that there was little ground for complaint.
The origins of Greek labour legislation are of nearly forty
years' standing. The first piece of social legislation—an Act
concerning the Sunday rest and public holidays—dates from
1909. Later, in 1910, 1911 and 1912, this Act was followed
by other Acts, Decrees, Ministerial Orders and Legislative
Decrees regulating industrial health and safety, and also hours
of work. These followed legislation on special conditions for
the employment of women, children and young persons, as well
as legislation creating a central labour administration and labour
inspection services. By 1912, therefore, the main foundations
of social legislation were already laid. Since that date, a large
number of Acts, Legislative Decrees, Royal Decrees and Ministerial Decrees have been issued amending and completing the
provisions of earlier regulations, always with a view to extending
their scope.
At the present time, the national legislation lays down
rules for the conditions of employment of workers under a
multiplicity of aspects. The main subjects dealt with are as
follows :
For workers in industry and commerce in general :
hours of work and daily rest periods ;
Sunday or weekly rest ;
holidays with pay ;

81

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

health and safety regulations ;
prevention of certain occupational diseases, in particular,
lead poisoning.
For young persons and adolescents :
minimum age of admission to employment and examination of fitness for employment ;
special conditions of employment for young workers,
particularly as regards prohibition of night work or
of employment on particularly strenuous or unhealthy
work.
For women :
maternity protection ;
protection against night work and against
occupational risks.

certain

For certain special occupational categories :
regulations dealing mainly with miners, seamen, dockers,
transport workers, hotel employees, hospital staff,
bakery workers, etc.
In the international sphere, Greece has ratified sixteen
international labour Conventions, as follows :
Convention

No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.

1.
2.
3.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
13.
14.
15.
16.

No. 19.
No. 27.
No. 4 1 .
No. 45.

Hours of Work (Industry), 1919
Unemployment, 1919
Childbirth, 1919
Minimum Age (Industry), 1919
Night Work (Young Persons), 1919
Minimum Age (Sea), 1920
Unemployment Indemnity (Shipwreck), 1920
Placing of Seamen, 1920
White Lead (Painting), 1921
Weekly Rest (Industry), 1921
Minimum Age (Trimmers and Stokers), 1921
Medical Examination of Young Persons (Sea),
1921
Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation), 1925
Marking of Weight (Packages Transported by
Vessels), 1929
Night Work (Women) (Revised), 1934' .' .' .'
Underground Work (Women), 1935

of ra?mcation

19.11.1920 1
19.11.1920
19.11.1920
19.11.1920
19.11.1920
16.12.1925
16.12.1925
16.12.1925
22.12.1926
11. 5.1929
14. 6.1930
28. 6.1930
30. 5.1936
30. 5.1936
30." 5.'l936
30. 5.1936

An analysis of the main subjects covered by Greek legislation
is given in detail below.
1
At the same date Greece had also ratified Convention No. 4, Night
Work (Women), 1919, which was later denounced wfien the Revised
Convention, No. 4 1 , was ratified.

82

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

SCOPE

From the very outset, and despite numerous recognised
exceptions, Greek labour legislation covered a very wide field.
This observation is of more than purely historical interest ;
it serves to explain many existing difficulties which it was the
Mission's duty to endeavour to understand.
Unlike other countries, where labour legislation was limited
at the outset to industry, or even to industrial undertakings of
a certain minimum size, calculated on the basis of the staff
employed or of the utilisation of mechanical power, in Greece
labour legislation has tended from the very first to protect
wage earners in commerce, offices, the hotel industry and other
urban activities, as well as those in industry. It also applies
to undertakings of all sizes, irrespective of the number of
wage earners employed or of the mechanical power utilised.
It covers not only the large factory but the small workshop,
not only the large multiple store but the small shop, unless the
undertaking is exclusively a family one.
From the point of view of social requirements, this wide
extension of the regulation of labour conditions is perfectly
justified. Greece is not even yet, and was even less so at the
beginning of the twentieth century, a highly industrialised
country, and its national economy is not concentrated to any
great extent. Even if agriculture is excepted—and agriculture
is the principal activity of the population, although, since it
is mainly carried on independently, it does not so urgently
need the regulation of conditions of employment—non-industrial
operations are important in the national economy and would
seem to employ a very considerable proportion of the total
labour force. According to a table on the distribution of
the population of Greece, drawn up by the Ministry of Reconstruction1, the commercial occupations and liberal professions
accounted in 1907 (shortly before the first labour law was
enacted) for 26 per cent, of the population, as against 19 per
cent, engaged in industry. In 1920, the proportion was still
20.7 per cent., as against 18.7 in industry. In 1928, it fell
to 16.4 per cent., as against 18.1 in industry. But according
to the sample survey on population distribution carried out in
1

Cf. Study No. 32 of the Ministry of Reconstruction (Athens, 1947),
p. 60.

CONDITIONS OF

EMPLOYMENT

83

1946 by the Allied Mission for Observing the Greek Elections \
commerce could, at that time, be reckoned as providing employment for 341,000 persons, as against 293,000 in the various
branches of industry (including mines, building and transport). 2
As regards wage earners, in contrast to the total population
gainfully occupied in non-industrial work, a certain amount
of information is supplied by the statistics of the central Social
Insurance Institution (I.K.A.). Of a total of 142,063 wage
earners insured with I.K.A. at its Athens branch in 1937 8,
49,629 persons worked in commercial or similar undertakings
or in offices (including the theatrical undertakings insured with
I.K.A., but excluding churches and hospitals), as against 83,463
employed in industrial undertakings (including mines and
transport). Wage earners of the commercial and office group
form nearly one third of the total of insured persons. The
relative proportions, therefore, of occupational groups vary
appreciably according to whether independent workers are
included or excluded. Even in the latter case the importance
of the non-industrial group remains considerable.
On the other hand, both in industry and in commerce, the
majority of wage earners is to be found in small-scale undertakings. There are no reliable statistics of the general situation
at the moment, but the following interesting figures were supplied
to the Mission by two out of the three divisions of the labour
inspectorate.
A census of industrial undertakings carried out on 15 September 1947 in northern Greece by the second division of the
labour inspectorate showed a total of 22,669 undertakings
employing 58,021 wage earners, or an average of 2.5 persons
per undertaking. Similarly, the third division of the inspectorate
(Piraeus and the Islands) was able to compute the number of
undertakings in its area in the course of the second half of 1947,
1
Cf. Journal of the American Statistical Association, September
1947, table IX on p. 377.
2
See also statistics concerning the working population and its
classification, in Chapters II and III of this Report.
8
Statistics for 1937 have been chosen in preference to those available
for December 1940, since it is possible that at the latter date the influence
of the war had already made itself felt and that the situation was not
completely normal. It should, however, be emphasised that the
statistics of I.K.A. can only give approximate indications, since they
are concerned only with a portion of the insured population of Athens,
and there are special funds for several occupations, both commercial
and industrial.

84

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

on the basis of the returns sent in twice a year to the inspectorate
showing the staff employed by each undertaking, its hours of
work and other information concerning its operation. The
total number of undertakings was 1,630. Of these, only 56
employed more than 50 wage earners, 789 employed between
10 and 50, and 785 less than 10. The highest proportion of
large-scale undertakings (more than 50 wage earners) was to
be found in the tobacco industry (8 undertakings out of 11),
and the next highest in the textile industry (24 undertakings out
of 326). At the other end of the scale, the catering industries
were represented by only three undertakings employing more
than 50 wage earners out of a total of 338 undertakings. There
was no undertaking employing more than 50 wage earners in
the leather, paper, clothing and wood industries. In these
four industries, workshops employing less than 10 persons were
more numerous than undertakings employing between 10 and
50, and in the clothing and wood industries workshops employing
less than 10 persons were almost four times as many as mediumsized workshops.
The picture is incomplete, because the first division of the
labour inspectorate was not able to supply similar information
for Athens and southern Greece. The most recent illustration
of the situation in Athens is given by the social insurance
statistics already quoted. In 1937, 142,063 wage earners in
Athens insured with I.K.A. were employed in 17,396 undertakings, or an average of a little over 8 wage earners per undertaking. The 83,463 insured persons in industry were employed
in 7,846 undertakings, and the 49,629 wage earners in commerce
and offices in 8,760 undertakings, or an average of 10 wage
earners per undertaking in industry and of a little less than 5
per undertaking in commerce and offices.
In addition, fairly precise data exist for the whole country
in respect of 1930. These are supplied by the Census of Establishments and Industrial Undertakings carried out in September
1930.1 For the whole of Greece at that time the number of
undertakings was reckoned at 175,831, comprising 76,591
industrial undertakings (including the mining industry) and
99,240 commercial establishments with fixed premises (including
the banks, but not other professional work or trades carried on

1

Athens, National Printing Office, 1934.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

85

in the open air). These establishments employed in all 454,791
persons (280,331 in industry and 174,460 in commerce). The
average number of persons employed per undertaking was 3.7 for
industry and 1.8 for commerce, or 2.6 for the whole. Of the total
number of establishments, the number of those employing more
than 25 persons was only 1,243 (0.7 per cent.). Of this number
1,047 establishments were in industry (being 1.4 per cent, of
industrial undertakings) and 196 in commerce (being 0.2 per
cent, of commercial establishments). Establishments of this
kind employed 27 per cent, of the labour covered by the census,
39 per cent, of industrial manpower, and 7.8 per cent, of commercial manpower.
In these circumstances, to confine social protection solely
to the wage earners of the large industrial undertakings would
have meant making a privileged class of a very small minority
of wage earners, while the majority were left without legal
protection. It would have had the effect, for example, of
leaving workers in the dressmaking industry at the mercy of
unscrupulous clients anxious to obtain a dress with the smallest
possible delay without any regard to the overtime or night work
involved. This is proved by the statistics given above. It
was precisely this type of labour with which Greek legislation
concerned itself from the outset. 1
On the other side of the picture, the attempt to give legal
protection to the staff of all small industrial or commercial
and similar undertakings has resulted since 1912 in placing a
crushing burden on the administrative services entrusted with
the enforcement of social legislation. The burden is aggravated
by the progressive development of labour legislation, which has
proceeded at a more rapid pace than the expansion of the administrative services. This is a factor which should not be forgotten
when any attempt is made to determine whether the resources
of the inspection services are commensurate with the magnitude
of their responsibilities.
1
A revealing feature of one of the first preoccupations of Greek
labour legislation may be found in the introduction of a special provision in one of the Acts on t h e weekly rest, forbidding night work
for women in tailoring and dressmaking establishments. This is the
Act of 1910, which was passed two years earlier than the Act on the
work of women and -young persons. Thus, the urgent and special
necessity of protecting labour in such workshops, which were generally
run on a handicraft basis and as a rule employed a very small staff,
was clearly recognised.

86

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE
STRUCTURE

One special characteristic of Greek legislation contributes
greatly to increasing the difficulties inherent in its application,
namely, the complexity of its structure, which is due to several
causes.
In order to break down the difficulties by degrees, certain
provisions of social legislation, e.g., the regulations concerning
the weekly rest and hours of work, were applied first in the big
towns and then gradually extended to smaller towns and to
villages and hamlets, with considerable variations in the details
of the regulations applying to each type of centre. In other
cases the regulations were limited at the outset to certain occupations, then gradually extended to other activities, again with
considerable differences in the regulations as between one
occupation and another.
To preserve the elasticity of the regulations many exceptions
have been authorised.
On the other hand, in order to reduce possibilities of evasion
to a minimum, further provisions have gradually been added
to the original regulations, or a general principle of protection
has been developed by successive administrative regulations,
not only as regards each of the branches of industry concerned
but sometimes within a single branch.
With the lapse of time, the fundamental provisions of the
Acts themselves have undergone numerous changes, and as it
often happens that a single Act includes amendments and
additions to many existing Acts, although such Acts deal with
very different subjects, the most scrupulous research is necessary
in order to get a general picture of the provisions as a whole
with regard to any given subject of labour legislation.
This is all the more true in that, in several cases—that
of the earliest legislation prohibiting the night work of women
has already been cited—a provision concerning a particular
subject has, for practical reasons, been introduced in a text
which concerns another particular subject. A slightly different,
but none the less fairly similar, case arose as regards the application of one of the international labour Conventions, that
concerning hours of work in industry. A legal provision of maj or
importance, the object of which was to extend the regulation
of hours of work in industry to all industrial undertakings
covered by the Convention, was introduced in a Decree which,

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

87

subsequent to several others, was intended to apply the regulation to a particular industry, in this case the manufacture of
glucose and starch. Attention was thus diverted from this
most important provision as a result of the limited nature of
the text in which it appeared.
Finally, new legislative texts have sometimes been enacted
without the repeal of contradictory provisions. In particular,
the Greek Government has more than once declared, in reply
to the Committee of Experts of the International Labour
Organisation which is responsible for considering the annual
reports of Governments which have ratified Conventions, that
the act of ratification of an international Convention gives
the provisions of that Convention the force of law on Greek
territory, notwithstanding any differences between the provisions
of the international Convention and the provisions of previously
adopted national legislation.
As a result of adding to and superseding texts in this way,
as also of the variety of systems thereby established, the general
picture is so involved as to make it difficult for the persons
directly concerned to obtain a clear view of the law—the
employers in order to conform to it, and the workers in order to
claim the benefit of the rights which it confers on them.
CONSOLIDATION AND REVISION

To give the necessary clarity to labour legislation, various
methods might be adopted :
(a) The first method would be the consolidation of the texts
dealing with each of the principal subjects concerned, or even
the consolidation or codification of all labour legislation.
There has already been some consolidation of regulations
dealing with certain questions. The regulations on the
Sunday rest were consolidated in 1914 and in 1930, those on
hours of work in 1932 (by Decree of 27 June for industry, and
by Decree of 8 April for shops and offices), and those on the
labour inspectorate in 1930 and 1934.
When consolidation dates back as much as twelve or fifteen
years, it leaves out of account the many provisions since issued.
In the case of the regulation of hours of work in industry, more
than twenty-five Decrees or Legislative Decrees have piled up
since consolidation was carried out.
On other questions, no consolidation of legislative texts has

88

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

yet been attempted although the intention to do so has sometimes been expressed. Thus, between 1937 and 1939, the annual
reports of the Greek Government on the application of Conventions announced a plan for consolidating various measures
concerning the Conventions ratified, and in particular the legislation on the work of children and young persons. It is true that
in recent years circumstances over which the Government has
had no control have made this consolidation work virtually
impossible, but the need for the resumption of this task, which
arises periodically for all authorities administering labour
legislation, is recognised by all parties.
(b) The question arises whether such a consolidation of
texts subject by subject will be sufficient, or whether it would
be desirable to undertake a more extensive codification. It has
already been suggested that all Greek labour legislation should be
embodied in a general Labour Code. In 1935 a Royal Decree of
19 November set up two committees for this purpose, a.drafting
committee and a revision committee. The plan was to supplement existing legislation while at the same time consolidating it.
This plan, which would have involved a considerable amount
of work, was never put into effect. The question whether it
would be desirable to take it up again is one worth consideration.
It might also be well to consider the desirability of preparing,
not necessarily a single labour code on the French model, but,
as in the case of certain other countries, two separate codifications, one for legal provisions applicable to industrial undertakings—a kind of Factory Act on the model of that adopted
in the countries of the British Commonwealth—and the other
for provisions applicable to commercial and similar establishments, i.e., a kind of Shops and Offices Act such as exists in
several of the same countries. Necessary references from one
code to the other could be made if their provisions were similar.
In point of fact, the provisions of Greek legislation are sufficiently different as between the two fields to justify a distinction. This might have the advantage of making labour
legislation easier to consult by the parties concerned in each
of the two categories.
In any case, a consolidation of the various texts according
to subject, i.e., hours of work, holidays with pay, employment
of young persons, etc. (which being more limited in aim, could
be more easily carried out), would go far towards clarifying

89

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

the situation and might constitute a first step towards amore
complete codification—if it were decided to undertake one—by
preparing each chapter in advance.
(c) After such consolidation had been carried out, it would
seem desirable, in order to maintain as much order as possible in
the legislation thus clarified, to proceed to amendments only
through the medium of a special text on each subject, and to
abandon the system of heterogeneous amendments in the same
Act or Decree.
(d) Furthermore, it would remain to be considered whether,
in the spirit of the 1935 scheme, it would be desirable to go
beyond a mere compilation of the existing provisions. Perhaps
advantage might be taken of the work of consolidation or codification of texts to prepare for the revision of such texts, with
a view, no doubt, to completing them on certain points, but also
as a step towards achieving greater uniformity and simplicity
in existing legislation.
This necessary examination of existing texts with a view
to their revision would probably show that, on many points
where the regulations now differ as between one industry and
another, or as between one town and district and other towns
and districts, it would be possible to standardise the regulations
when the conditions in the various industries or districts are
more or less similar.
It might also be found that, in respect of more than one
problem, a certain simplification of texts would be desirable,
since regulations gain in effectiveness when they emphasise
essential measures. In any case, the enforcement of regulations
drawn up in a simple form is easier and, in consequence, more
effective.
General Characteristics of Labour Inspection
STRUCTURE

OF

SERVICES

AND

DISTRIBUTION

OF

FUNCTIONS

The structure of the services to which the application
of labour regulations is entrusted in Greece is complicated.
Responsibility for the supervision of conditions of labour has
been divided between several services, and the dependence of
these services on the central authorities and also their mutual
relations have been modified more than once since the creation
of the general labour inspection services in 1912.
7

90

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Mines Inspection Services
One division of responsibility has, however, remained
constant. It is that between the Mines Inspection Office, whose
services are part of the Ministry of National Economy, and the
inspectorate responsible for other undertakings liable to inspection, which is attached to the Ministry of Labour.
Such a division is not exceptional. For technical reasons,
few countries have been able to avoid it, so much so that the
International Labour Conference took note of the situation by
introducing in the Convention on labour inspection, adopted
at its 30th Session in 1947, a provision authorising States which
ratified the Convention to exclude mining undertakings from
the application of the Convention. At the same time, the
Conference adopted a Recommendation inviting States Members
to submit such undertakings to the supervision of an appropriate
system of labour inspection.
But the division of responsibility in Greece is not complete.
The four inspecting engineers of the mines service are not
empowered to apply the whole of social legislation in mining
undertakings. Their duty is confined to inspecting equipment
and to supervising measures for the safety of the workers both
on the surface—including foundries attached to the mines for the
treatment of ore—and in underground work. The application
of legislation concerning contracts of employment, notice of
dismissal, hours of work and the weekly rest, holidays with
pay, protection of wages and other provisions common
to miners and to workers in other undertakings, and also the
conciliation of labour disputes, are dealt with by the general
labour inspection services.
This division of responsibility for the protection of the same
category of workers necessarily raises problems concerning
co-operation. Unless there is close liaison between the various
services concerned, there may be gaps in the system of supervision as a result of the division. It is always difficult to draw
a clear line of demarcation between the prevention of accidents
and other labour problems, since general labour conditions have
a considerable bearing on safety.
It might therefore be preferable that the mines inspectors
should shoulder the entire responsibility of applying the whole
system of labour regulations in mining undertakings. But
such an extension of their responsibilities would involve a

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

91

considerable strengthening of the special services for mining
inspection, and it might well be difficult to make such a recommendation at a time when, owing to circumstances, the
mining industry of Greece is operating at an extremely low
level. If mining work were to return to normal or if, as the
result of plans for economic development, the mining industry
were to be expanded, it might perhaps be desirable to reconsider
the problem of the distribution of responsibility for inspection
in the mining industry.
Technical and General Services of the Labour Inspectorate
A similar tendency towards the specialisation of inspection
services in respect of particular duties has appeared in varying
degrees from time to time in the organisation of the inspection
services of the Ministry of Labour. Although the latest developments in the structure of these services show some return
to the pre-war centralised system, the tendency to specialisation
can still be traced in many features of the existing structure,
chiefly in the distinction made between the general and the
technical services of labour inspection.
The general inspection service consists of the staff of the
labour inspection offices. These number about twenty for
the whole country, and are divided into three main divisions,
generally known as " directorates ", for southern Greece, for
northern Greece and for Piraeus and the Islands. These three
directorates are immediately subordinate to the DirectorGeneral of the Ministry of Labour.
The staff of the general inspection service at present consists
of 57 or 59 persons, according to whether the two officials
seconded from the Ministry to organise offices in the course of
formation are or are not included in the inspection staff. In
practice, however, the general services include also several
officials with the title of " technical inspector ". These are,
first, the three directors of the divisions mentioned above, then
the other inspectors properly so-called, since the title of inspector
is granted only to persons possessing an engineer's diploma.
The technical labour inspection service, however, is composed
essentially of experts, attached to the central services of the
Ministry, whose duty it is to consider problems concerning
the prevention of accidents and of occupational diseases and
to draft the appropriate regulations. These technical experts

92

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

are also responsible for making visits of inspection in undertakings both within and outside Athens. One of them is a
doctor, whose function is to study problems of industrial hygiene
and of the supervision of the sanitary condition of work premises.
The six others are engineers, namely, an electrician, a mechanical
engineer, three chemical engineers and a civil engineer, the latter
being assisted by three supervisors of safety measures in building
yards.
Act No. 560 of 1945 provided that each of the engineering
inspectors should be assigned certain industries to supervise.
As one of these inspectors has been detached to work at Patras,
the central services have no more than four technical inspectors
for the supervision of safety measures in all classes of undertakings throughout the country (except public works). It is
true that for practical reasons the general labour inspectorate
of northern Greece is for the moment assuming responsibility
for safety inspection. Nevertheless, it is clear that four inspectors are not enough to supervise safety measures over
two thirds of the country, and that in the two other divisions
of the labour inspectorate the general inspection service should,
in collaboration with t h e technical experts on industrial safety,

and on their advice, continue to be responsible for the application
of safety regulations, reporting difficult cases to the experts,
if necessary.
Administrative Co-ordination
An organisation of this nature presumes the existence of
easy means of co-operation between the technical experts of
the inspection service and the inspectors of the general services.
It would seem, however, that certain features of the existing
organisation are not favourable to the development of close
relations between all the services. The existing structure is
based on a compromise between the principle of complete
centralisation of inspection services in a single body, under the
authority of an Inspector-General, as laid down in Act No.
4819 S and the principle of decentralisation which was adopted
under Act No. 560 of 1945 on the organisation of the Ministry
of Labour. True, the Legislative Decree of 26 April 1946
established the principle that the technical services entrusted
with industrial safety and health inspection should be included
1

Cf. consolidated text of the Act in L.S., 1934, Gr. 1.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

93

in a so-called " corps of labour inspectors ", but this " corps "
is now a body without a head since the same Decree provided
for the suppression of the post of Inspector-General of Labour
as soon as it became vacant, and in point of fact this vacancy
has since occurred. The result is that, in accordance with the
provisions of the same Decree, the technical inspectors are
subordinate to the Inspector-General's substitute, and he is
the director of one of the divisions of the general inspectorate
of labour. Consequently, the technical services are at a disadvantage in their relations with the various sections of the
inspectorate.
The abolition of the post of Inspector-General of Labour
has necessarily resulted in the disappearance of a central
secretariat which would normally centralise data concerning
the activities of the various district inspectorates, the information which the inspectorates have been able to collect on the
undertakings subject to the Act and the staff of such undertakings, on the number of infringements detected, the penalties
inflicted, the number of accidents and cases of occupational
diseases, the observations of inspectors on the results achieved
by the legislation, and the problems which the Act has left
still unsolved.
Collaboration between technical and general inspectors is
no doubt possible in practice thanks to the goodwill of individuals, even where the administrative structure offers no
easy channel for it. But, on the policy-making level, i.e., in
respect of the centralisation of results obtained and the conclusions to be drawn from such results, it is clearly under the
authority of the Inspector-General that a synthesis of all
individual results obtained by members of the inspection
service can best be achieved, and conclusions drawn for the
direction of social policy, either as regards labour legislation
or as regards practical measures for the protection of the worker.
Act No. 560 of 1945, as amended in February 1946, provides in
section 13, paragraph 2, that the co-ordination of the operations of
the local labour inspection offices shall be carried out through the
medium of the central services of the Ministry, according to the
appropriate competence of each service (i.e., in respect of particular labour problems). This division of responsibilities cannot,
however, lead to any real co-ordination of inspection operations.
The re-establishment of a central authority in the Greek
labour inspection system would therefore seem to be highly

94

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

desirable. Such a suggestion is, moreover, in conformity with
one of the provisions of the Convention on the subject adopted
by the International Labour Conference in June 1947.1
STATUS OF LABOUR INSPECTION STAFF

The regulations for the labour inspectorate have, since the
creation of the service, provided for two categories of staff,
namely, labour inspectors properly so-called and labour supervisors, a term sometimes wrongly translated as " assistant
labour inspectors ". There has also been since 1935 2 a class
of assistant supervisors. These are in a certain sense supernumerary inspectors.
Labour inspectors all belong to a class of technical staff
from whom high qualifications are required. Only candidates
possessing an engineer's diploma can be appointed or promoted
to the position of inspector. The regulations carefully define
the diplomas recognised for this grade, which are all
of university level. There is, therefore, some guarantee
that candidates possess the essential technical basis for the
specialised training which they must acquire in order to become
competent inspectors. But, with the same object in view,
subsidiary qualifications are also indispensable, such as a
knowledge of labour law and of social economics.
The law does not specifically state that women who possess
the necessary qualifications are eligible for the post of inspector ;
only the appointment of women labour supervisors is expressly
provided for.
The place of inspectors in the administrative hierarchy is
honourably high. It ranges from the higher secretarial grades
through those of " rédacteur ", to head of section " B " or " A "
and, occasionally, to Director " B " . 3 It must, however, be
noted that the inspectors are the senior members of the inspection staff, called on to carry out responsible duties in the
inspection services, particularly the management of offices in
the large industrial centres.
1
8

Cf. Article 4 of the Convention in question.
Act of 10 June 1935, section 2 ; cf. L.S., 1935, Gr. 4. At that time
10 assistant supervisors' posts were created, in addition to 20 new
posts of supervisor, with a view to strengthening the inspection service
so that it might be able to undertake the new function assigned to labour
inspectors and labour supervisors of managing the public employment
offices,
to be set up under the same Act.
3
See below, p. 291, table XXV, showing grades and salaries in the
civil service.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

95

Labour supervisors are not expected to have more than
moderate educational qualifications, a secondary school diploma
or its equivalent. Previously recruitment took place on the
basis of an examination and, before confirmation of the appointment, there was a probationary period of at least a year followed
by a second examination. But entrance examinations for the
civil service were suppressed in 1946, and the 35 supervisors
engaged since the war were taken on without an examination.
They followed an instruction course for four months and then
were distributed among the various offices. This was natural
enough because the services concerned had been seriously
disorganised by the war and the need to reconstruct them was
urgent. At the end of the war scarcely more than about
twenty of the old officials were still in the labour inspection
service.
The rank of labour supervisors in the various administrative
grades is moderate. They range from the grade of attaché,
through secretaries of " B " and " A " class and " rédacteurs "
and may reach, but not exceed, the grade of head of section
" B ". Promotion to this rank may be made from the higher
grade of clerk. Women are admitted as labour supervisors
within the limits laid down by the law. The 1945 Act specified
six posts, but, as a matter of fact, women at present hold seven
posts, one of which is the management of the office of the City
of Athens. "Whatever their qualifications, they have no hope
(as have their male colleagues with the necessary university
degrees) of promotion to the rank of inspector.
Despite their moderate educational qualifications and their
lowly administrative rank, labour supervisors are not given
merely subordinate inspection work, as would seem to have
been the original intention. According to Act No. 4819 (consolidated text, 1934), " men and women supervisors shall
assist the competent inspectors in the performance of their duties,
in particular in the enforcement of the provisions concerning
the protection of women, young persons and children, and the
hours of work, Sunday rest and weekly rest of these persons ". 1
In practice many of these supervisors are entrusted with
responsible work ; nowadays, for example, the direction of
labour inspection offices is frequently entrusted to supervisors.
As a general rule, the offices assigned to such supervisors
1

Section 10, subsection 4.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

are situated in provincial towns far from the big centres,
so that their responsibility is correspondingly increased, since
they have few facilities, in the event of difficulties, for seeking
the advice of their superiors, of the technical inspectors or of
the industrial health officer.
It should be noted that the comparative proportions of
inspectors and supervisors in the labour inspection service
have been changed in recent years, in such a way as to downgrade
the work. Act No. 4819 (consolidated text, 1934) provided
for a proportion of two inspectors to three supervisors
(in actual figures, 12 inspectors and 18 supervisors). Act
No. 560 of 1945, as later amended, provided for 10 posts of
inspector and 42 posts of supervisor, or 4.2 supervisors to one
inspector.
In these circumstances, it is inevitable that the management
of provincial offices should be entrusted to supervisors, since
there are, at present, about twenty labour inspection offices and
it is intended to create others. Furthermore, the assistant supervisors swell still further the subordinate elements in the inspection service and their proportion to the total number in the
service.
There is a danger that this situation may lead to a lowering
of the prestige of the inspection service, even if appointments
to responsible posts are made with the utmost possible regard
to the capacities shown by such junior officers as the supervisors.
The delicate task of a labour inspector—and, in practice,
that task is fully performed by supervisors who are in charge of
an office—means that the holder of such a position ought to
be put on an equal footing as to grade and salary with, for instance, the engineers in private undertakings with whom he has
to deal. A labour supervisor should never be put in a position
of envying the wages of the workers whom he is protecting,
and such cases were not exceptional in October 1947. It is
undeniable that a reasonably comfortable material situation is
the best guarantee of integrity in the exercise of duties which
expose those who carry them out to external pressure—a
guarantee which is certainly more effective than shifting labour
inspectors and supervisors from office to office at least every
four years. This latter provision was one which Act No. 560
endeavoured to impose on all officials of the external services
of the Ministry of Labour. It was, however, subsequently
repealed.

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97

It.would, therefore, seem appropriate :
(a) to strengthen the labour inspection service as regards
fully qualified inspectors, so as to secure a staff of senior officers
large enough to fill all responsible posts, in order that supervisors
may be given only subsidiary work under the responsibility of
the inspector ;
(b) to offer prospects of promotion to the best elements
among the supervisors, even if the holder of such a post lacks
a university degree, but provided that he has shown in the
exercise of his duties exceptional qualities of intelligence and
devotion, and if his practical experience can be considered
equivalent to the possession of a university degree ;
(c) to offer women with qualifications equal to those of men
the same possibilities of promotion to all posts in the inspection
services ;
(d) to strengthen the occupational qualifications both of
inspectors and supervisors :
(i) by making them take an entrance examination for which
the subjects should be announced in advance, in order to
compel candidates before presenting themselves to acquire
at least an elementary acquaintance with social economy
and labour law, and also some slight practical knowledge
of the compilation of labour statistics ; at least one of the
tests should allow of forming some estimate of the
moral character of the candidates ;
(ii) by subjecting successful candidates to a period of practical
and theoretical training for at least one year, the curriculum of which should deal directly with the work they
will have to perform. This first year should be followed
by a second year of probation in service, carried out in
quarterly stages in the various inspection districts, if
possible in more than one district of the country ;
(iii) by organising brief refresher courses for inspectors and
supervisors already confirmed in their posts ;
(iv) if possible, by offering the best candidates the opportunity
of doing a short period of training in the labour inspection
services of other countries ; and
(v) by setting apart special days for conferences between
inspectors and supervisors of the same area or of the

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country as a whole, in order to facilitate an exchange of
experiences and discussion of work problems. In particular,
such meetings might be organised for the study of problems
of special current interest, with a view to preparing or
amending appropriate regulations, or in order to discuss
the best methods of applying a difficult regulation, or to
seek the best means of preventing an occupational risk or,
in general, of dealing with other specific labour problems.
DUTIES AND RESOURCES OF THE LABOUR INSPECTORATE

It is not possible to judge whether the resources of an
administrative service are adequate without calculating the
extent of its responsibilities. This is not easy, since many
factors must be taken into account. Hence the description
and analysis which follow are only approximate.
Duties
It may be confidently asserted that labour inspection duties
in Greece are onerous. Two reasons have already been given in
the first part of this chapter : the very wide scope of labour law
and the complexity of its structure.
In principle, Greek legislation applies to the small undertakings in which the majority of wage earners are to be found.
That principle can only be applied in practice by persevering
effort on the part of the inspectors. Since the process of industrial
—and also commercial—concentration is not very far advanced,
there are innumerable small undertakings which have to be
visited by the labour inspectors. Furthermore, the primary
sources of information necessary for detailed supervision are
often not available for the inspectorate in establishments of
this kind. It is relatively easy for large undertakings to keep
regular records of the staff, of payrolls, and of holidays with pay.
The same does not apply to small undertakings, the accounts of
which are often neglected, and which do not possess an office
staff qualified to remedy this situation. Furthermore, the
limited means at the disposal of these establishments preclude
the possibility of imposing peremptory orders. As a result, the
inspector too often merely closes his eyes to the deficiencies noted—lack of safety equipment, inadequate hygienic

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99

conditions in premises, etc.—whereas he ought to do everything in his power to suggest means of improving the conditions
of work of the personnel without such an increase in general
expenditure that the undertaking cannot meet it. The inspector
can only require a little at a time from these undertakings, but
he should be able to come back frequently in order, by small
partial improvements, to achieve complete success. This is a
long process, a patient work of education, which requires repeated
effort and many hours of duty to be devoted to it.
The Greek inspectors have not the time needed for such
a task. One example will show the extent of that task and the
narrow limits within which it can be fulfilled at present.
According to the census of 1947 already referred to above, the
town of Salónica has 12,000 undertakings, which employ 22,000
workers and 9,000 employees, that is to say, an average of 2.5
persons per undertaking. The staff of the three labour inspection
sections of this town manage to visit every month (according
to certain monthly reports communicated to the Mission)
between 225 and 250 undertakings, that is to say, 2,500 to
3,000 a year. It would therefore take three or four years for
even one visit to be made to every undertaking in the town, and
many of them would doubtless need to be visited several times
a year in order to obtain substantial improvements in their
plant and in the working conditions of their personnel.
The Greek law is complicated. This is a point on which
certain suggestions have already been made above for improving
the actual presentation of the texts. In their present state, the
inspector must have considerable experience to apply these
complicated and diverse regulations wisely and accurately.
Furthermore, the numerous exceptions for which the law
provides, giving the inspector the right to grant permits, cause
him a considerable amount of administrative work. If he is to
carry out this work conscientiously and not confine himself to
signing the form filled up by the employer, the inspector should
find out whether there are sufficient reasons for granting the
application for an exception.
In recent years, ministerial
circulars have several times reminded inspectors that they
should limit the granting of overtime permits to indispensable
cases ; this requires an investigation of each case.
The issue of employment books to children is another matter
for which the inspectorate is responsible, and which calls for
an equally careful examination of each case, if the measure is to

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protect the young worker effectively against unsuitable employment. This problem is referred to again below.
Another task which gives the inspectorate a great deal
of work, by reason of the investigations and collection of
evidence which it involves, is the settlement of individual disputes arising out of the application of the contract of employment. In a small inspection office, the staff of which consisted of
three persons (an inspector, a supervisor and an assistant
supervisor), such complaints by wage earners averaged 50 per
month. The three sections of the town of Salónica (staffed by
7 officials) dealt monthly with 100 to 120 individual labour
disputes.
Many of the complaints concern conditions of labour which
are regulated by law, and in such cases it is obviously the duty
of the inspector to apply the law. When, however, it is a case of
disputes arising out of clauses of the contract which do not
involve the application of a legal provision but require an
interpretation of the law or of the clauses of a contract, it is
obvious that, failing a labour tribunal specially competent to
judge such cases to which the matter might be referred, and in
order as far as possible to avoid reference to an ordinary court,
the inspector will spend a good deal of his time trying to reconcile
the parties. He often succeeds (in Salónica from 75 to 80 per cent.
of the disputes were settled by the inspectorate), but at the cost
of the time intended for inspection visits.
Many other enquiries have to be undertaken as a result of
collective or individual complaints alleging breaches of the
law, or concerning unsatisfactory conditions of employment,
these complaints coming from others than the person directly
concerned. The inspectors receive a very large number of these.
Besides these tasks, which are often out of proportion
to the actual means at the disposal of the Greek inspection
services, but which are very generally part of the duties of
labour inspectors, the Greek legislation overloads the inspecting
officials with responsibilities which are, so to speak, outside
the proper sphere of this service, namely, the application of
labour legislation or the study of labour problems with a view
to improving that legislation. These subsidiary functions are
of various kinds.
One of these additional tasks which regularly gives the
greatest amount of work is the management of the employment
offices for which the official in charge of each of the inspection

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101

offices is responsible. Although an administrative staff, independent of that of the inspectorate, is detailed for the routine
work of the employment offices, it is obvious that the direction
of this personnel—which has often been engaged only recently,
since the organisation of the employment offices is quite new
—requires continual attention. Since this work is additional to
the numerous administrative duties already involved by inspection itself, it is to be feared that in most of the districts the hours
of duty of the most competent official will be wholly taken up
by office work and thus not be available for visits of inspection.
In inspection districts which have only one single employee—
and this applies to about ten at present—it is almost impossible
for this official, overwhelmed by this additional task, to devote
himself to his essential duties. This, at least, is the situation
which was reported to the Mission in some inspection districts,
where, during certain months of 1947, it had not been possible
to visit a single undertaking.
Other additional tasks are of an exceptional character.
One of the most serious, by reason of the responsibilities which
it implies, is conciliation in collective labour disputes. Legislation
on the subject (Legislative Decree of 21 April 1926, section 6 1,
and Royal Decree of 18 June 1936, section 10 2) gives the labour
inspector or supervisor of the place in which the dispute has
arisen the power of undertaking conciliation should none of the
representatives of the Ministry of Labour who are specialised in
conciliation work be available on the spot.
These representatives, who are known as " reporters on
labour disputes " 3, have been attached since the beginning to
one of the central services of the Ministry. Before the war
they were under the Inspector-General of Labour. Act No. 560
of 1945 attached them to a separate directorate of the same
Ministry, fixing their number at five and giving them four
assistants. Nevertheless, since these specialised reporters are
stationed in the capital, it is obvious that when a dispute arises
in a district far removed from Athens the local representatives
of the labour inspectorate may quite frequently be called on to
intervene instead of the special conciliation officers, at least
at the beginning of the dispute.
1
2

Cf. L.S., 1926, Gr. 3.
Government Gazette, 1 August 1936: this Decree applies the Emergency
Act of 16 November 1935 (cf. L.S., 1935, Gr. 9).
8
For the duties of these officers, see Chapter VIII, section on
" Industrial Relations " , pp. 305-306.

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In addition to the above-mentioned functions, which are
expressly specified by Greek law as coming within the duties
of the labour inspectorate, the Act in question reserves the
possibility of giving the inspectorate the task of carrying out
any duties coming within the general competence of the Ministry
of Labour (Act No. 4819 concerning inspection, section 1,
paragraph 2). Such delegation of powers takes place mainly
in the case of the inspection sections working in districts distant
from the capital. In practice, in northern Greece—and especially
at present by reason of the disorganisation from which all
means of communication have suffered—the labour inspectorate
is a sort of branch establishment of the Athens Ministry, and
this involves heavy additional burdens, particularly for its higher
officials.
Personnel Available
In view of these increased duties of the inspection service,
an inventory of the staff at its disposal naturally shows a deficit.
The numerical strength has already been given above : the
figure of 59 employees, spread over about 20 offices, shows
a marked decrease as compared with the pre-war position ;
according to the annual reports of the Greek Government on the
application of the Conventions ratified during the year 1938-39,
the labour inspectorate had then a staff of inspectors and
supervisors consisting of 70 persons spread over 40 districts.
The figure does, however, mark a stage in the ascending
curve, after the drastic reduction of the inspection services
to about 20 officials as a result of the war and the events which
followed it. The mass recruiting which took place in 1945-1946
means that a large part of the present personnel is still inexperienced, and this is a serious handicap for a service which
is necessarily dispersed when carrying out its duties, and which
requires personal initiative of its employees.
It is true that to the force shown above there should be added
the assistance given to the inspection services by the police.
Under Greek legislation, it is the police who, in any place where
there are no representatives of the labour inspectorate, are
responsible for certain of the inspectors' duties, particularly for
the issue of permits for an exception to the legal provisions on
hours of work and Sunday rest. Furthermore, in centres of
population which are provided with a labour inspection office,
the police must assist that office in the application of the

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103

regulations, particularly the regulations on hours of work,
the weekly rest, and the employment of women and children.
For this purpose, quite a considerable number of police officials
were formerly attached to the inspection offices in the most
important industrial centres. At present the use of police
officials as auxiliary employees of the inspection offices has much
decreased ; • nevertheless, certain offices have still one or two
regularly in service.
It is to be hoped that in future the regular labour inspection
service may be able to rely solely on civilian employees, subject
to possible recourse to the police services in exceptional
cases and for exchange of information in respect of industrial
accidents or the starting of new undertakings, as provided for
in Act No. 4819. It is necessary that the labour inspector
should himself have police powers, but it is preferable that
he should carry this weapon inconspicuously and that he should
generally appear in the role of technical adviser and educator.
Habitual association of the labour inspectorate with the police
is liable to make the inspection services appear essentially
repressive in character, and this should be avoided. It is
better that its employees should derive their authority from
their prestige and if necessary from their own powers.
There is, therefore, no reason to regret that the use of police
officials as auxiliary employees of the inspectorate has
decreased. On the other hand, it would be desirable that the
inspecting personnel which has powers to visit undertakings
should be still further relieved of administrative work by
another kind of auxiliary personnel, namely, office staff (typists,
clerks and statisticians). At present most of the offices receive
no assistance from staff of this category, so that all the office
work, such as the keeping of registers and the preparation of
statistics, falls on the supervisors, and even sometimes on the
inspectors. The number of 59 employees mentioned above
does not therefore consist solely of inspecting personnel but.
includes a large proportion of administrative personnel. This
explains why as yet it has been possible to reconstitute only
partially the records destroyed by the war, why the statistics
of undertakings subject to labour legislation and of their
personnel are incomplete, and why statistics of industrial
accidents and occupational diseases are not available. The
information which is necessary for the study of labour problems
is often incomplete, its systematic collection and compilation

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

are undertaken at present only in certain sections, and the reports
of the inspectors to their official superiors are not submitted
regularly. Statistical and other information as to the results
of inspection is, however, indispensable to give substance to the
annual report of the labour inspectorate, a report which has
not been published since 1935. The Government had held out
hopes that this publication would be resumed when submitting
the reports for the year 1944-45 on the application of international labour Conventions ratified by Greece.
Material Resources
After considering the staff, some account must be given
of the material resources at the disposal of the labour inspectorate.
Although the proper installation of an inspection office and
its equipment with office machines and other modern facilities
are important factors for the efficiency of the service, the only
point dealt with here is one which is fundamental by reason
of the very nature of the duties of inspectors, namely, means
of transport.
If this problem is always important for inspection services,
it is certainly even more so when, as in Greece, the limited
number of district offices means that each of them has to serve
a fairly extensive area and that the technical inspectors stationed
in the capital have to travel in every direction.
Hitherto, it has not been possible to put any private means
of transport at the disposal of the inspectors for carrying out
their duties. It is expected that for the next few years it will
still be impossible, for economic reasons, to give them such
facilities. The only arrangement which might tend to solve
some of the present difficulties would be one taking account of
the existing public means of transport which serve the various
quarters of each town or connect the centres of population to
each other.
As for the expenditure involved by travel, the legislation
contains provisions for free travel on the tramways of their
district for officials of the local offices, and for putting a small
number of railway passes at the disposal of the inspection personnel (Act No. 4819, section 10, paragraph 6, of the text of 1934).
There can be no difficulty involved in making a periodical
readjustment of the number of passes to the development of

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105

requirements for long-distance travel. Perhaps arrangements
could also be made to give employees of the labour inspectorate
facilities for free travel not only on tramways but also on motorbus lines serving the zones which they have to visit. The question
of other travel expenses (expenditure on meals or hotels) is more
delicate. The same Act provides for allowances in proportion
to the salary—three fifths of the daily remuneration and a fixed
daily allowance, the amount of which has been readjusted by
various later regulations. Act No. 940 of 1937, which supplemented Act No. 4819, also provides for a small lump-sum
monthly allowance for petty expenses. Various Orders of
1946 fixing the amount of lump-sum allowances have laid down
that these should be limited to the days on which the official
was working outside the inspection office. Can these various
allowances be regarded as sufficient to cover all travel expenses,
taking account of the rise in the cost of living and the proportionate fall in the value of salaries in spite of the readjustments
that have been made in them ? The Mission was not able to
carry out the detailed study which would be necessary to reply
to this question. It nevertheless came away with the impression
that the matter should be re-examined by the Government in
order that officials might not be tempted to neglect visiting
those undertakings under their supervision which are distant
from their headquarters by the fear that they themselves might
have to pay part of the travel expenses.

Necessary Readjustments
In comparing the increased duties of the labour inspectorate
with the means at its disposal, it would appear that to obtain
reasonable efficiency in these services and thus a proper enforcement of labour legislation, certain readjustments are indispensable :
(1) It would first be desirable to consider whether some of the
burdens of the labour inspectorate could not be lightened, and
whether certain difficulties which it has to overcome could not be
lessened.
(a) Should the suggestions made previously with a view to
consolidating and simplifying labour legislation be adopted,
it is obvious that the task of the inspectors would thereby
8

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

be made much easier. Nevertheless, even if unnecessary
complications are disposed of, the legislation that they
have to apply will still be so extensive—and account should
further be taken of the many additions which will later
be made to it—as to require of the inspectors a continuous
effort in order that they may be fully acquainted with all
the details of these regulations and recall each of the
provisions at the proper time.
(b) In order to assist the inspectors in this matter, an inspection
handbook would be very useful—that is to say, a special
collection of legislative texts set forth in such a way that
new texts can be added at the proper place as soon as
they are promulgated. Such a collection should be completed by a classified subject-index so that any of the provisions can speedily be referred to.
Such handbooks, the use of which is customary in a number of countries, also generally contain detailed instructions
to inspectors as to the methods to be applied when carrying
out their duties ; on the use of educational methods and
measures to secure compliance, with suggestions as to the
' line to be drawn between these two means of action ; on
their relations with employers and workers, and their
duty to accept no favour or present which might later
interfere with their independence and their impartiality;
and on the various administrative procedures which they
have to employ in any given case.
(c) Furthermore, in order to assist the inspectors in their
task of educating the persons concerned—employers and
workers—it would be desirable to put at their disposal
pamphlets summarising the labour regulations clearly and
in a manner easily understandable by outsiders ; attention
would be drawn to the main measures, with concrete
suggestions as to means of applying them in practice.
These information pamphlets might be specialised by
preparing them for several different categories of recipients:
for employers and for wage earners respectively in several
main branches of industry and commerce.
(2) It would, on the other hand, be necessary to consider
whether the inspection service might not be relieved of certain
of the additional duties which it at present undertakes.

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107

(a) In a general way, it would be desirable to see that the
additional tasks which might be entrusted to labour
inspectors by reason of their experience should not, by
their nature or their extent, be liable to interfere with the
effective carrying out of the visits of inspection, which
should remain the essential duty of the inspectors.
(b) In accordance with Article 4 of the 1947 Recommendation
on inspection, it would be desirable to arrange that inspectors did not have to intervene in the settlement of
collective labour disputes.
(c) So far as the settlement of individual disputes is concerned,
it has already been stated above that the setting up of
special judicial instances for labour (labour tribunals or
probiviral courts) might remove from the duties of inspectors
all cases in which it was not a question simply of applying
the law but one of interpreting a legal provision or a clause
of a contract.
(d) As regards the management of employment offices, one
might hesitate to suggest that the responsibility for these
should be withdrawn from the inspectorate, for it is certainly
better in a country where engagement through public
services is compulsory that the inspectors should be in
close touch with the offices where persons are engaged.
Nevertheless, this duty should not be supplementary in
the sense of being added to the other duties of the
inspectors ; it should be included among the statutory
duties of the labour inspectorate in Greece and a corresponding number of officials assigned to that inspectorate to
take over these duties without interfering with their
other responsibilities.
(3) One measure is indispensable, in spite of the expenditure
which it must involve : the numerical reinforcement of the upper
grades of the labour inspection services, so that in each of the
district offices full-grade inspectors should take over the essential
duties which involve a high responsibility ; and reinforcement
of the subordinate staff—supervisors or office staff—to assist
them in all their administrative duties.
This numerical reinforcement would furthermore ensure
efficiency of the service for two reasons : the inspectors would
have the necessary time to carry out their duties, and they
would be able to supply the central administration with the

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

information which would make it possible to keep a check on
their activities. The irregularity of reports, due to lack of
time for preparing them, may often prevent the higher authorities of the inspectorate from seeing whether the time of every
official is employed in the most efficient manner, or whether,
overwhelmed by too many duties, certain officials do not neglect
to carry out the most essential part of their work.
(4) It would be desirable to grant travel facilities to inspectors to enable them to visit undertakings and carry out
investigations. This can be done by :
(a) carefully taking account of the existing means of communication for the mapping out of inspection districts and
the allocation of different areas to different inspection
offices which serve a large town, and calculating the length
of journeys required for visits to undertakings in order
to allot a suitable amount of staff to each office ;
(b) readjusting, if necessary, after careful examination of the
situation, the travel allowances granted to inspecting officers
so that these allowances may in fact cover all expenditure
involved by their duties.
(5) It should also be remembered that the qualitative
improvement of the inspection services which would be ensured
by vocational selection and systematic professional training
of inspectors and supervisors, as already suggested in the
previous paragraphs, would go far towards ensuring an equilibrium between the duties and the resources of the labour
inspectorate by guaranteeing the fullest use of the resources
at its disposal.
(6) Lastly, the inspection services might receive assistance
from those directly concerned in the enforcement of the labour
legislation.
(a) Act No. 4819, as amended in 1934, provided for the creation
of a Labour Inspection Council attached to the inspectorate,
comprising, in addition to the Inspector-General of Labour,
representatives of employers and workers, of the Faculty
of Law, of the Polytechnic School and of the Supreme
Council of Public Health. Perhaps this body might be
revived. It would, however, seem even more desirable to
obtain tripartite co-operation in the concrete problems of

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109

enforcing labour legislation and improving labour conditions. For this purpose, tripartite committees might be
formed at the headquarters of the three divisions of the
labour inspectorate and possibly also at the district offices.
(b) Experience has shown that the joint bodies for collaboration
set up inside undertakings give excellent results in respect
of the application of safety regulations and the organisation
of measures concerning the prevention of accidents and the
hygienic conditions of workplaces. The setting up of
safety and health committees and the appointment of trade
union delegates for questions of safety and hygiene within
undertakings might perhaps be studied with a view to
deciding which of the two methods would best meet the
conditions in the country.
Problems connected with Conditions of Employment
After having described the legislative background of conditions of employment and the structure of the service responsible
for applying the legislation, it is necessary to examine separately
the main problems involved, and to endeavour to estimate
the extent to which the Greek regulations have been effective
in solving them.
HOURS OF WORK AND R E S T PERIODS

As already indicated above, the statutory limitation of hours
of work and the fixing of minimum rest periods were undertaken early in Greece, not only in industry but also in commerce
and in offices. So many texts have been promulgated on these
subjects that it is impossible to mention all the provisions here
in detail. Only the main lines are indicated below.
Hours of Work in Industry
Hours of work in industry are regulated by more than
fifty legislative texts promulgated between 1911 and 1940, the
first twenty-five of which were consolidated and amended in 1932
by a Decree of 27 June. 1 This text, and those which completed
it later, unified, on the basis of an eight-hour day and a forty1

Cf. L.S.,

1932, Gr. 2, A.

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eight hour week—in accordance with the Washington Convention, which Greece has ratified—the original regulations
established industry by industry, with a different régime for
every industry. Nevertheless, although a Decree of 10 September
1937 J laid down that all establishments which could be classified
in the categories specified in Article 1 of the Convention should
be subject to the system of eight hours per day and forty-eight
hours per week, later Decrees laid down a less favourable régime
for workers in non-mechanical bakeries. This deviation from the
Convention, to which attention was already drawn before the
war by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions, would seem to have not yet been settled.
A second point had attracted the attention of the same
Committee of Experts : the failure to determine in Greece
those operations requiring to be carried on continuously by a
succession of shifts, for which, under the Convention, an extension of the working hours up to a maximum of fifty-six in the
week might be allowed.
If there were to be a consolidation of legislative texts, at
the same time as a revision of the regulations which they lay
down, as suggested in the first part of this chapter, it would
therefore seem particularly necessary that this opportunity
should be used to put the legislation on hours of work in industry
in complete harmony with the Convention.
The effective application of the eight-hour day regulations
also raises certain problems. The first concerns the granting
of permits for overtime. In this respect appreciable progress
had been made towards a stricter enforcement of the eighthour day by reducing facilities for exceeding it. Thanks to
the ministerial circulars issued in recent years ordering labour
inspectors to grant such permits only in cases of serious need,
it would seem that the number of permits has markedly
decreased in comparison with the pre-war situation. The lack
of complete statistics unfortunately makes it impossible to
estimate exactly this reduction in respect of the whole of
Greece. Nevertheless, the annual reports which are submitted
by the Greek Government on the application of the 1919 Convention have on several occasions indicated the number of permits
granted in the first district of the labour inspectorate, that of
Athens. It may be noted that in the first nine months of 1936,
1

Cf. L.S., 1937, Gr. 3, D.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

111

1,910 permits were granted in respect of 16,299 workers ; in
1945-46, during twelve months, only 107 permits for 1,381
workers were granted.
In order to reduce the granting of such permits to a strict
minimum everywhere it would seem desirable to concentrate
the power to grant them in the hands of the labour inspector
in charge of the nearest office to the undertaking, rather than to
grant that power to the local police, from whom an expert
estimate of technical requirements cannot be expected.
A second problem is that raised by the use of certain methods
of evading the law in order to exceed the legal daily hours
without a permit. A procedure which might easily escape
the notice of the inspectorate is to hand out to men and women
workers, at the end of their day in the factory, a certain quantity
of work to be done at their home, if the work is purely manual or
only requires very simple tools which any worker can easily
obtain. It would appear that such an evasion of the law is not
exceptional, particularly in the needle trades and shoemaking.
Doubtless men and women workers in these trades, where wages
are low, willingly accept the opportunities of earning a little
extra money. Perhaps even, certain employers do this in ignorance of the law. It is true that in section 16 of the consolidated
text of 1932 there is a provision forbidding employers to employ
on any day wage-earning or salaried employees who have been
employed on the same day in another establishment or workplace
for the statutory hours of work. This clause should be interpreted as tacitly forbidding the giving out of work to workers
who have done their full day in the workshop of the same
employer ; but it would doubtless be better for the prohibition
of overtime of this kind to be more explicit and absolute. For
even when paid with the statutory wage increase, this overtime
work, the exact duration of which cannot be checked, will always
leave the door open for serious abuses.
A new wording of the section in question would therefore
be desirable. It would also be useful to give a clear interpretation of the law as regards overtime, and to this end
pamphlets might be prepared, summarising and explaining the
regulations, as has been suggested above.
The remuneration of overtime raises a third kind of problem.
Section 9 of the consolidated text of 1932 mentions, among the
conditions required for obtaining a permit to exceed the ordinary
working day, the payment of remuneration not less than 25

112

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

per cent, higher than the ordinary rate of wages in all undertakings subject to the regulations at that time. Nevertheless,
several of the Decrees which later extended the eight-hour
system to other industries provided for a higher increase : in
undertakings such as weaving, spinning, hosiery and similar
mills, a 50 per cent, increase under a Decree of 28 April
1937 x ; and in tanneries and gut-works, a 100 per cent, increase
under a Decree of 3 September 1937.a
It may be questioned whether such differences are justified
in the case of a statutory system, since this only lays down
minimum obligations, and equal rates established by law may
be increased by collective agreement.
Since it is desirable, wherever possible, to make the regulations uniform at the level which is the most advantageous to
the workers, it is suggested that the question should be considered with a view to deciding what percentage of increase
should be adopted as the general standard established by law.
Breaks for Rest during the Working Day
In addition to the basic provision fixing maximum hours
of actual work, Greek legislation also contains clauses providing
for compulsory rest breaks in the working day.
In industry these breaks must be reported to the labour
inspectorate as part of the working time-table which is submitted periodically to the inspectorate for approval, and which
is posted up in the undertaking. Section 14 of the consolidated
text of 1932 prescribes the exact duration of such breaks, which
are calculated so as to respect the habit of the siesta, while
avoiding the organisation of overlapping shifts : a maximum
of half an hour for a snack ; for the midday rest a maximum
of two hours in winter and three hours in summer, and during
the whole year a minimum of one hour's rest.
Nevertheless, special systems have been laid down for
various industries, e.g., tanneries and spinning mills, by the
Decree of 18 September 1933; mechanical and metallurgical
industries and newspaper printing, by the Decree of 7-18 June
1935 ; cloth mills, spinning mills, knitting mills and similar
industries, by the Decree of 28 April 1937. In these last-named
1
2

Cf. L.S., 1937, Gr. 3, A.
L.S., 1937, Gr. 3, C.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

113

industries the employment of women is authorised in two shifts
on condition that a minimum rest of half an hour is granted
between the fourth and fifth hours ; the legislation does, however,
allow the suppression of all breaks at the request of four fifths
of the total number of workers, if the competent inspector
" is satisfied that such an arrangement of work is necessary ".
During its visits to undertakings the Mission noted how
frequently a continuous time-table is at present organised
without any breaks for rest, when the undertakings work in
shifts. In fact, this arrangement, which the legislation allows
as an exception, was becoming almost the general rule
in the Athens and Piraeus district. It was particularly to be
found in all the establishments visited which work in three
shifts, except in one of them, where a break of half an hour for
rest was granted, so that the actual working hours were reduced
to 7i/ 2 .

It may be questioned whether the continuous eight-hour
day without any break, with a snack eaten hurriedly and often
while standing and still tending a machine, is not liable in the
long run to be harmful to the health of workers subject to it not
as an exception but regularly. In most countries it is held that a
minimum rest of half an hour is necessary to the human body
if eight hours are to be spent at work. The use of three shifts
a day, which is very advantageous for production, should imply
as an inevitable corollary a slight reduction of actual working
time below eight hours.
Before the habit of working eight hours at a stretch becomes
still more general in Greece, it might therefore seem desirable
to carry out social and medical enquiries into the effects of
this system : social, to ascertain whether four fifths of the
personnel really consent to the continuation of the shift of
eight hours without a break after having experienced it ;
medical, to verify the degree of fatigue which is shown from the
fifth to the eighth hour, when there has been no break, and the
effects of fatigue on the frequency of accidents and on the
general state of health of the workers after a prolonged period
of this system. 1
1
The experience gained in other countries suggests that these studies
will also show a considerable reduction in output during the last hours
of the continuous working day.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Hours of Work in Shops and Offices
In the commercial sphere the regulation of hours of work
dates back to 1919. The Decree of 8 April 1932 consolidated the
existing provisions governing the matter. 1 This text was
amended later by the Legislative Decree of 25 May 1935 2,
the Legislative Decree of 10 June 1935 2, and Act No. 547 of
15 March 1937. 3 These fundamental texts have been supplemented by a large number of Decrees concerning particular
occupations, such as butchers' shops, pharmacies and hotelkeeping.
A detailed analysis of this legislation would be long and
useless. Attention should, however, be drawn to certain of
its characteristics. One of the most striking is that in this
sphere the legislature did not act directly. There are no
general standards concerning hours of work in commerce and
offices ; there are special standards for the personnel of commercial establishments in large towns (nine hours a day) and
for the staffs of given categories of establishments, such as
banks and offices (seven hours a day), grocers' shops and other
provision shops and hairdressing saloons (ten hours ; eleven
hours on Saturday), and so forth. Further, these standards
can be modified, and, if they fix a duration of more than ten
hours, can be reduced by ministerial decree to a lower figure,
as low as eight hours in large towns.
Generally, however, limitation of the working day in commercial establishments is obtained rather by indirect means,
such as the fixing of the hours of opening and closing of shops,
fixing of a minimum rest in the middle of the day, and fixing
of the nightly rest, the combination of which measures limits
the working hours. In these three respects the same fundamental text has established at the same time minimum standards
—thus determining, so to speak, boundaries within which the
local authorities may fix the exact hours of opening and closing
for establishments of each category—and special standards,
more advantageous for the staff, applying to establishments
in the large towns, or to establishments belonging to certain

1

Cf. L.S., 1932, Gr. 3.
L.S., 1935, Gr. 2, A and B.
3
L.S., 1937, Gr. 2, A.
2

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

115

occupational categories. On the other hand, exceptions that are
less advantageous for the staff are provided for other occupational categories, or permanent facilities may even be granted
to establishments situated either in special localities, such as
seaports, or even in certain quarters, such as streets near the
sea. Furthermore, small localities may in principle be exempt
from the regulations, but may be brought under them by
decree. Lastly, many exceptions are authorised in localities
where the regulations normally apply, either regularly—e.g., on
Saturdays, at Christmas, New Year or Easter—or in special
circumstances.
Admittedly, the regulation of commercial occupations,
which are so varied and so closely connected with the requirements of daily life, must necessarily differ in order to enable
these establishments to fulfil their economic and social ends.
The milkman must begin his work earlier than the restaurant
waiter, but he can also finish it earlier in the evening.
It may therefore be suggested that, without depriving the
regulations of the necessary elasticity, particularly in respect
of fixing an earlier or later opening or closing time for each
type of commercial establishment, it might be possible to reduce
the standards to a smaller number of simpler and more clearly
specified systems, which would, above all, grant more equal
protection to all workers as regards the limitation of their
hours of work, and the conditions under which overtime is
allowed.
The Weekly Rest
The weekly rest, fixed by Greek law for Sunday save for
exceptions in the case of certain occupations, has for many
years been the subject of regulations. After a period of application limited to the large towns, the compulsory Sunday rest,
as defined by the consolidated legislation of 1930 1, supplemented
in 1936 2 and in 1945, now applies in principle to industrial,
handicraft and commercial work throughout Greece.
As regards industry, no difficulty arises in the application
of Convention No. 14 of 1921 concerning the application of the
weekly rest in industrial undertakings.
1
2

Cf. L. S.,1930, Gr. 2.
L.S., 1936, Gr. 9, C.

116

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The provisions concerning weekly rest in commercial
establishments are based in the main on the 1921 Recommendation, the text of which leaves the national legislation a very
considerable freedom of adjustment. Nevertheless, from the
point of view of the interests of the workers, mention should
be made of the excessive variety of régimes which have been set
up both by the 1930 text and by later texts—variety in respect
of certain trades or occupations in which the workers have a
shorter rest but are compensated by a certain number of days
of annual holiday, variety also in respect of the season, the
town, and even the quarter of certain towns. While exceptions
in respect of Sunday rest are inevitable, it would doubtless be
possible to bring about a greater uniformity in the right of
workers to a weekly rest of at least twenty-four consecutive
hours. In this field also, it is therefore suggested that the present
situation should be studied in order to obtain for all workers
more or less uniform rights under labour law.
Holidays with Pay
The right to annual holidays with pay, established first
for the salaried employees of commercial establishments, banks
and offices in towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants, through
the hours of work legislation1, and later for special categories of
personnel such as hotel staff 2, was granted by Act No. 539
of 1945 to " persons employed for remuneration in industrial,
handicraft, commercial, transport or loading and unloading
undertakings or activities carried on for profit, irrespective of
the nature of their organisation (public or private), or in public
utility undertakings, hospital or other establishments or institutions, or in any other work performed on account of an individual
or body corporate, a public or State organisation, an industrial
association, a co-operative society, a public amusement undertaking or a club ". 3
The same Act further provides that the right to holidays
with pay may later be granted by decree to the following
categories : persons employed in shipping, fishing, agricultural,
1

Act No. 3508 of 1928, section 18 ; consolidated text of 1932, section
19 (cf. L.S., 1932, Gr. 3).
2
Act No. 394 of 1936, section 10, paragraph 2 (L.S., 1936, Gr. 8).
3
L.S., 1945, Gr. 2.

117

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

stockbreeding and forestry undertakings, and to domestic
servants.
Under Act No. 539, the legal duration of the annual holiday
differs according to the category to which the wage earner
belongs, and a distinction is made between four categories, as
shown below :

Category

Number of
working days
after 12
consecutive
months

Supplement
for every
6 months
employment'
over 1 year

Maximum
legal
holiday
(in working
days)

Persons employed as "salaried
employees" in undertakings
of a public nature, or public
utility undertakings, or j oint
12

1

26

Persons employed as " wage
earners ' ' (skilled or unskilled) or as apprentices or
servants in the abovementioned undertakings . .

8

1

16

Persons employed as "salaried
employees" in other undertakings covered by the Act

8

1

18

Persons employed as "wage
e a r n e r s " in other undertakings covered b y the Act.

6

1

12

Furthermore, whatever the category to which they belong,
wage earners under 18 years of age and those employed on
certain specified strenuous tasks have a right to annual holidays
with pay of at least twelve consecutive days. Even in the case
of the least favoured category—that of workers in private
undertakings—the right to annual holidays with pay corresponds, as regards its duration, to the obligations of the Holidays
with Pay Convention, 1936.
The conditions laid down by the Convention for granting
holidays are also respected, as are the suggestions contained
in the Recommendation on holidays with pay adopted by the
Conference at the same time as the Convention. Therefore,
all that is required is complete agreement between the list of
occupations coming under the Greek regulations and the lists

118

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

contained in the 1936 Convention to enable Greece to ratify
the Convention and to approve the supplementary Recommendation.
Certain problems still arise in this respect. The definition
of the scope of Act No. 539 of 1945, reproduced above, leaves
a doubt as to whether several of the categories of undertakings
coming under the 1936 Convention on holidays with pay are
really covered by the national law. The doubt arises from the
fact that, after having defined the scope in very general terms
—industrial, commercial and handicraft undertakings or
activities carried on for profit—section 1 of the Act enumerates
certain categories of undertakings, some of an industrial
character as defined in international labour Conventions,
such as transport and work on loading and unloading, others
of a commercial character, such as establishments or institutions
for the care of the sick, public amusement undertakings and
clubs. Thus, it cannot be assumed that building undertakings,
which form a separate group of industrial establishments under
the international Convention, really come under the law, or
that certain undertakings generally regarded as commercial,
such as newspaper undertakings, hotels, restaurants, boardinghouses and cafés, which are specially mentioned by the Convention as coming under its provisions, are actually covered by
the Greek Act No. 539 in the same way as clubs.
This doubt is all the more serious in the case of hotel staff
since under Emergency Act No. 394 of 1936, mentioned above,
these workers were entitled to annual holidays with pay before
the general Act on holidays with pay was passed, but not
under conditions complying with the requirements of the
Convention. Apart from other differences, a written declaration by the hotel employee certifying that he does not desire
to take his holidays frees the hotelkeeper from all responsibilities under section 10 of Act No. 394, a clause which is in
definite contradiction to Article 4 of the Convention. Act
No. 539 of 1945 concerning annual holidays with pay for wage
earners has cancelled the provision of Act No. 3502 of 1928 on
the annual holiday of bank and office employees, which its
provisions now replace, but it is not stated in the said general
Act of 1945 whether its provisions also replace the earlier
regulations concerning holidays for employees (both wage
earning and salaried) in the hotel industry.
The position of hospital staff is also doubtful. According

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

119

to section 1 of Act No. 539 of 1945 this staff is entitled to annual
holidays with pay. The Emergency Act No. 199 of 1936,
already referred to, granted them annual holidays with pay
of 20 days after three years' employment, and paragraph 3
of section 1, under which this right is granted, was not repealed
by Act No. 539 of 1945. It may therefore be questioned whether
the holidays previously provided for hospital staff meet the
" more favourable arrangements for the granting of annual
holidays . . . which may be in force under rules of employment
or other provisions ", which are not affected by section 2,
paragraph 7, of Act No. 539. In that case the holidays would
remain in their old form in place of the holidays provided for
all wage earners in 1945. But in certain respects these holidays
are less advantageous, particularly in respect of the length of
the qualifying period and the maximum length of holiday
allowed. Therefore, should holidays now be granted to hospital
staff under the conditions laid down by the 1945 Act ? Or
should the rights to the two holidays be added together ? This
seems doubtful, although really this last method is the only one
which would safeguard the interests of the workers in question ;
for since they are entitled under Act No. 199 of 1936 to only
24 hours of weekly rest every fortnight, or to twelve hours a
week, the annual holiday, within the meaning of the 1936 Act,
was obviously intended as a sort of partial compensation for the
inadequate weekly rest.
The Mission therefore suggests that the situation of wage
earners who ought to have annual holidays with pay under the
1936 Convention should be carefully considered in order to
extend, if necessary, the scope of Act No. 539 of 1945, or
to amend the provisions of the Acts with which its effects are
combined, so that the Convention may be ratified as soon as
possible.
As to the occupational groups to which it is proposed to
extend later the right to holidays with pay, it is satisfactory to
see domestic service among them, for wage earners of this class,
who are called upon to live in a family not their own, have a
moral as well as a physical need of holiday periods to be spent
with their family. But there is another group of wage earners
to which Greek legislation has not yet been applied, and to
which the Mission suggests that it should be extended as soon
as possible—industrial home workers. This problem will be
dealt with later.

120

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

INDUSTRIAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Since 1911, the date at which the first Greek Act on industrial
hygiene and safety of workers was promulgated, highly developed
regulations, which are also in many respects quite modern,
have been evolved. They lay down standards of hygiene and
safety, applicable now not only to industry strictly speaking,
but also to all wage-earning occupations except agriculture.
There are special texts concerning safety on railways and in
mines.
Legislation in respect of safety in industrial undertakings
(including building and loading and unloading work), commercial
undertakings and offices was codified on 14 March 1934 J and the
155 sections of this Decree set forth systematically all measures
essential for the protection of the health and life of workers.
Furthermore, prevention of occupational risks in various industrial occupations has been provided for by specific regulations : prevention of accidents in open-air work (quarries,
excavations, etc.) a , prevention of lead poisoning, particularly
in the use of white lead and other lead pigments 3, health and
safety in garages 4 , conditions for the use of basements as
workshops, etc.6
Since the publication of Act No. 1204 of 1938, forbidding
the use of pigments containing lead, the application of the
Convention (No. 13) concerning the use of white lead in painting,
ratified by Greece on 22 December 1926, is ensured.
Taken as a whole, the above-mentioned texts provide
regulations which are already very satisfactory and to which
there would be very little to add.
In this field, however, there are still problems of a practical
character. It is true that in the large industrial establishments
the regulations laid down by Greek legislation would seem to
be reasonably applied, but the Mission has derived from its
visits to factories and workplaces an impression that the labour
inspectorate is still faced with a tremendous task in trying to
secure the enforcement of the regulations in the small work1
2
3

Cf. L.S., 1934, Gr. 11, Extract.
L.S., 1934, Gr. 4.

L.S., 1934, Gr. 1 and 1938, Gr. 4.
¿.S., 1934, Gr. 8.
6
L.S., 1934, Gr. 9.
4

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

121

shops, which still employ the majority of industrial workers
in Greece. Although climatic conditions in Greece, which are
favourable to outdoor work and to having the doors and
windows of workshops continuously open, eliminate a large part
of the risks involved by certain unhealthy work and facilitate
hygienic conditions in most workplaces, there are aspects of
the work and its environment on which the climate has no effect,
and which require official action if conditions harmful to the
health of the workers are to be removed. The Mission is therefore
of opinion that it is desirable in the next few years to make a
special effort to improve conditions in the small workshops.
A progressive programme of action might well be drawn
up for this purpose, which would begin with the most essential
safety and hygiene measures. The measures chosen might form
the subject of educational campaigns carried out in all the
districts of the labour inspectorate in turn—possibly with the
collaboration of such municipal services as the public health
services. At the end of a fixed period, the inspectors in charge of
each office should report on the results obtained in the undertakings within their district. Campaigns of this kind might,
for instance, deal successively with the levelling of the floors
of workshops so as to avoid risk of falls, hygiene of lavatories
and cloakrooms, guarding of belts and movable parts of
machines, lighting and ventilation of basement workshops \
provision of first-aid kit in case of accidents, and the supply
and wearing of protective clothing in occupations requiring
this.
Along with this action in respect of the small workshops,
it would also seem desirable in undertakings of all sizes to
make effective the legal provisions concerning the notification
of accidents and occupational diseases.
As to industrial accidents, the Decree of 14 March 1934
requires employers to notify any accident occurring in factories,
workshops, shipyards, warehouses, and other places of work
subject to the regulations laid down by this text. Such notification must be made by the employer within 24 hours, both to
the competent labour inspector and to the local police, and if the
1
By reason of the climatic conditions mentioned above, the Mission
proposes limiting the campaign on lighting and ventilation to basement
workshops, where the bad ventilation conditions and lack of lighting
are all the more disgraceful since they contrast with the favourable
conditions existing out-of-doors.

9

122

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

incapacitiy for work lasts more than 15 days, the employer
must also report the circumstances of the accident to the
magistrate.
In spite of the obligations so defined, the Mission has not
been able to obtain any general statistics concerning industrial
accidents. The monthly report forms of certain inspection offices
included such a heading, but it did not appear in the forms of
other districts. In the case of accidents occurring in undertakings
covered by insurance, it is obvious that the data concerning
these accidents accumulate automatically in the various insurance offices which have paid compensation in respect of them,
but these data are not set out in detail by the offices nor are they
centralised.
In order to prevent industrial accidents, it is, however,
indispensable to know their causes, the rate of frequency and
the seriousness of the risk in each different branch of activity.
It is, therefore, necessary to collect detailed information not
only as to the number of accidents, but also as to their
circumstances \ methodically classifying these data, as recommended by the First International Conference of Labour
Statisticians (October 1923) in its resolution concerning the
international standardisation of statistics of industrial accidents,
with the amendments introduced by the Sixth Conference
(August 1947).2 It would therefore seem necessary to establish,
as soon as possible, an administrative system for the recording
of industrial accidents.
In view of the double system according to which compensation for industrial accidents is at present given, it might be
desirable to entrust the task of collecting data concerning such
accidents in a systematic form, on the one hand, to social
insurance funds in the case of accidents occurring in insured
undertakings, and, on the other, to the labour inspectorate
in the case of undertakings not yet subject to compulsory
insurance.
For this purpose the various insurance funds should be
required to open special accounts for payments made as compen1
As Mr. P . Pavlakis makes quite clear in a recently published work
on t h e causes and prevention of industrial accidents (Athens, 1947).
2

Cf. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E , Studies and Reports, Series N

(Statistics), No. 19 : The International Standardisation of Labour Statistics
(Geneva, 1934), p p . 27-28 ; and New Series, No. 7 (Part 4) : The Sixth
International Conference of Labour Statisticians, Montreal, 4 to 12 August
1947 (Geneva, 1948), p p . 63-64 and 70.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

123

sation for accidents, and to use forms common to all the funds
to classify the accidents registered in accordance with the table
of classification suggested by the above-mentioned resolution.
Forms showing separately the same essential data in respect of
the circumstances of the accidents would be used by the various
inspection districts to register accidents occurring in the noninsured undertakings in each district. Registration would, as
is already provided under the Act, be carried out on the basis
of two declarations by the employer, one made at the time of
the accident, the second after the period needed for knowing
the final effects of the accident and the compensation for which
it called.
With regard to the centralisation of the basic data obtained
by this double method, their collation and their publication,
it would seem normal to entrust this task to the statistical
service of the Ministry of Labour, to which these data should
be communicated annually. In order to obtain a general
picture of the accident risks in the various branches of activity,
it would even seem appropriate that the insurance funds dependent on another Ministry, such as the seamen's insurance
funds, should also communicate to the Ministry of Labour the
data that they have collected with regard to industrial
accidents.
The situation is more or less the same in the case of the
prevention of occupational diseases. Although Legislative
Decree No. 1204 of 1938 concerning the use of lead pigments
has, among other things, made it compulsory for the employer
and for the doctor treating the case to notify to the labour
inspectorate every case of lead poisoning at the time it is
diagnosed (section 14), and for the employer to send at the end
of each year to the central labour services (at present the
Ministry) a list of all workers suffering from lead poisoning
during the year (section 18), yet at the present time the only
statistics as to occupational diseases are those collected by the
Mineworkers' Fund on cases of lead poisoning in lead mines. 1
It is obvious that statistics are also indispensable for dealing
with the risks of other forms of industrial poisoning which exist
in certain industries when protective measures are inadequate.
1
Information provided by this Fund was communicated to the
Office by the Greek Government in its report for the year 1945-46 on
the application of Convention No. 13.

124

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The Mission therefore suggests that measures should be taken
as soon as possible to provide for the collection of statistics of
occupational diseases along lines similar to those suggested
above in respect of industrial accidents.
As to the legislation itself, the prevention of occupational
diseases is the only point on which the Mission would like to
suggest an addition to the industrial hygiene regulations already
existing. To safeguard the health of workers it would seem
that a more extensive use should be made of compulsory medical
examinations, now that the development of the medical services
and of social insurance could provide the staff necessary for
carrying out the examinations. At present compulsion is used
above all to protect the public, for instance in the case of bakers
and hotel employees, but seldom for the protection of the
workers themselves and in order to trace the harmful effects
which certain dangerous or arduous tasks may have. As far as
the Mission is aware the only case in which periodical medical
examination is required is when pigments containing lead are
used.1 There are indeed cases where employers, for instance
in glassworks, have of their own initiative organised medical
services to give such protection, but in the absence of a legal
obligation, some of them might neglect it in cases where it
would be desirable.
The Mission therefore suggests that the health service of
the Ministry of Labour should be established as soon as possible
on a sufficiently wide basis, and with the necessary technical
staff, to undertake a study of the occupations in respect of
which it may seem indispensable to require a medical examination (occupations where use is made of lead, or benzol arsenic ;
glassworks, particularly for glass blowing). These enquiries
might serve a double purpose : to prepare legislation concerning
compulsory periodical medical examination in certain occupations, and also to improve the practical safeguards, such as
the installation of apparatus for the removal of harmful gases,
the wearing of protective clothing, etc.
As the improvement of safety and hygiene in workplaces
requires the collaboration of those directly concerned—the
workers—they, as well as the employers, must be fully informed
of the necessity of the measures provided for by law, and should
1
Under Act No. 1204 oí 1938, concerning the prohibition of the use
of pigments containing lead, section 16 (cf. L.S., 1938, Gr. 4).

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

125

be called on to collaborate in their application. Furthermore,
the organisation of joint safety committees within undertakings,
and the appointment by the workers of safety delegates are
methods which have been found very effective in a number of
countries. The Mission suggests that industrial relations of
this kind be developed as widely as possible in Greece even
in the small workshops, where a safety delegate can be appointed
even if it is not possible to set up a joint committee.
HOME WORK

When visiting either sewing workshops—particularly for
embroidery and underwear—or dwellings in working class
districts, the attention of the Mission was drawn to the problem
of home work. Certain of the undertakings that were visited
employed considerably more persons as home workers than
they employed in their workshops, and the women workers
found in their homes, bending over their sewing machine or
sewing table, certainly did not enjoy satisfactory labour conditions. Eight hours of hard work barely enabled them to earn a
wage equivalent to the official rates of October 1947, at a time
when the women workers in workshops often received twice
and sometimes three or even four times as much.
The Mission had not the necessary time to study the problem
of home work closely, a problem of which it is difficult to obtain
full knowledge in any country. The first impression, however,
was that this problem was serious both as regards the number
of workers concerned and as regards their conditions of work.
The very structure of Greek industry, particularly the poor
development of mechanised industry in branches such as those
of men's and women's clothing, underwear, hosiery, and even
shoemaking, might give reasonable grounds for thinking
that in these branches there was every opportunity for the
expansion of home work. It is probable that this form of work
also exists in other industries, in which production can be carried
out by hand or with the assistance of relatively simple tools.
There is at present in Greece no statutory protection for
industrial home workers and, hitherto, the problem does not
even seem to have been much discussed. It is true that the
establishment of regulations in this matter is not easy. Regulations governing home work, to be effective, must be drawn up
in such a way that they do not leave loopholes for evasion ;

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

but evasion is easy in the case of activities which are dispersed,
and for the same reason their supervision is difficult.
Therefore, although home workers are easy to exploit by
reason of their lack of organisation, and urgently require protection, the Mission thinks it desirable to suggest a programme
of action in several stages. The first stage would only be
preparatory. Before laying down the definite lines of a system
of statutory protection, enquiries must be made which would
reveal as fully as possible the extent of the problem and its
particular characteristics.
It would be necessary first to make an investigation in the
branches of industry where home work may be suspected of
being customary, in order to know how many home workers are
employed there. Failing precise data, which could only be
supplied by a general census, estimates might be made by
ascertaining the quantity of a certain kind of goods—for instance, men's shirts—sold in the shops of a given district, say,
Athens, and the productive capacity of the workshops of the
district in respect of this article. If the number of articles
markedly exceeds the productive capacity of the workshops, it
may be suspected that the manufacture of the article is partly
carried out in the workers' homes. The number of workers
employed on it might be approximately deduced by comparing
with the number of workers employed in the workshops and their
output.
The next step would be to study, by enquiry from a certain
number of male and female home workers, the conditions under
which they work and are paid. Enquiries of this kind were
carried out between 1900 and 1910 in a large number of countries
of western Europe, and were the origin of the first regulations
on home work. Much might be learnt from the experience of
these countries, from their successes and also from their partial
setbacks until a more or less satisfactory system of regulations
had been evolved.
Once the ground had been explored, the first measure of
regulation might consist in making it compulsory for undertakings to report on the number of home workers they employ,
either by laying down this obligation for all industries, or limiting
it at first to the branches of industry in which the investigations
have shown that this form of employment is customary. In
addition, the undertaking should be obliged to provide each
home worker with a work book in which the articles given out

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127

to be worked are noted and also the wages paid on delivery,
and also to keep in the undertaking, at the disposal of the
labour inspectorate, a special register containing the same
information.
In order to apply these preliminary regulations, it would
be necessary to give the term "home workers" a legal definition
sufficiently comprehensive for it to be impossible to evade the
regulations under the pretext that these workers are not wage
earners but craftsmen, giving by some artifice an appearance
of independent work to services required from the persons
employed outside the workshops. In France, for instance, after
many years during which the scope of the legislation on home
work had given rise to a number of legal disputes, the legal definition of home work given by the Act of 1 August 1941 makes it
unnecessary to show proof that a, worker who performs his
work for an employer outside the workshop is under the
employer's orders ; it excludes from its scope only craftsmen
who work directly for private customers.1
After the system of registration of names and wages has
been working for a certain period it will be possible to build
up regulations for protecting men and women home workers,
at first confined to fundamental measures or measures which
are relatively easy to apply, and then gradually extended to
other spheres of social legislation.
These initial regulations should be concerned with the
organisation of machinery for fixing minimum wage rates for
home workers, based on the Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery
Convention adopted by the International Labour Conference
at its 11th Session (1928) and the Recommendation on the same
subject adopted at the same time. That Recommendation
lays particular stress on the need for establishing machinery
for fixing statutory minimum rates for home workers, because
of the difficulty they experience in themselves negotiating
collective agreements to protect their wages. The same Recommendation suggests the setting up of tripartite committees
to carry out this fixing of wages and indicates how these committees might be set up and operated.
Since these tripartite committees have to fix rates for piece
work, it is necessary that they should be set up for every branch
1
See the text of the Act in L.S., 1941, Fr. 11, and the commentary
on the reasons for this reform in International Labour Review, Vol.
XLVI, No. 2, August 1942, pp. 206-209.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

of industry in which home work is to be found. In order to
space out the difficulties, one branch of industry could be chosen
as an experiment on which to start the working of the first
wages committees, and then, when the machinery was well
developed, the system could be successively extended to the
other branches of industry where it would be useful. It would
seem desirable, in order to make administrative supervision
easier at the beginning, to choose for this experiment a branch
of industry in which a large number of men and women home
workers are occupied in urban centres—for instance, the manufacture of clothing or underwear.
After a system for fixing minimum wage rates has been
instituted, it would then seem possible to extend to home workers
the right to holidays with pay, for administration of this measure
is comparatively simple. It would be sufficient to provide for
the payment, every time that work done is handed in, of a
certain percentage of the wages over and above the payment
due for the work, either in cash or in the form of special stamps
affixed to a card. It has been estimated in France, for instance,
that 4 per cent, might constitute remuneration for annual
holidays. Should the home worker work for several employers,
each of them would thus defray his share of the holidays with
pay. Supervision might be carried out at the undertaking
itself by means of the counterfoil register of the employer, which
should record all work carried out and all wages paid.
The next stage of the programme might include the extension
of social insurance to home work. Home workers employed by
undertakings which come under the categories subject to the
social insurance legislation would be compulsorily liable to
insurance, like workers in workshops, particularly in respect
of pension insurance and sickness insurance, including maternity
insurance. Maternity insurance is particularly important in
this kind of work, in which a large number of married women
are engaged. In order that the protection of the latter should
be complete, it would be necessary at the same time to
enact legislation which maintains their right to employment
during the interruption of work due to childbirth and ensures
that they can later resume their usual work.
Certain countries have also adopted regulations concerning
the health conditions of home work, with the dual purpose of
protecting the workers against the occupational risks involved
in certain operations, and protecting the public against the

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129

risk of contagion by articles manufactured in dwellings which
are contaminated or by workers who are diseased. Nevertheless, the application of provisions of this kind requires
effective supervision carried out at the dwellings of the workers
themselves and would undoubtedly exceed the present possibilities of the ¡Greek labour inspection service, which already is
not sufficient to supervise labour conditions in the undertakings.
Such measures could therefore be introduced only at a very
much later stage of the gradual plan of action which is suggested
here.
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS

In Greece, the employment of children and young persons
has been regulated since 1912, and it is this legislation which
led to the establishment of a corps of labour inspectors. Although
the original legislation has been amended and supplemented
by many later texts, its provisions have never yet been consolidated. This is, therefore, one of the subjects with regard
to which the legislative consolidation, already suggested above,
is particularly necessary.
Nevertheless, since the problems connected with the employment of children and young persons are closely bound up with
social problems of education, vocational training and even
social assistance, it would be useful to prepare, in agreement with
the other competent ministries, a code including all the various
statutory provisions concerning the social protection of children
and young persons, rather than to limit such a code exclusively
to labour regulations. The resolution adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 27th Session (Paris, 1945)
might serve as a basis for putting into operation such a code
for the protection of children and young workers. 1
It is on this rather wider basis that study of the problems
connected with the employment of children and young persons
must necessarily be made at this point.

1

Resolution concerning the protection of children and young workers
(cf. Official Bulletin, Vol. XXVIII, 15 December 1945, pp. 31-49). See
also the preparatory report setting forth the reasons and principles
underlying each of the provisions of the proposed text on the subject
which was submitted to the 27th Session and adopted after careful
examination and with various amendments : International Labour
Conference, 27th Session, Paris, 1945, Report III : Protection of Children
and Young Workers (Montreal, 1945).

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Admission

to

Employment

Two aspects of t h e question should be considered : firstly,
the minimum age for admission to t h e various categories of
employment ; and secondly, t h e methods of authorising such
admission.
Minimum

Age.

At present, in virtue of t h e national legislation and of t h e
ratification of t h e two international Conventions, t h e effects of
which are combined with those of t h e said legislation, t h e
minimum age of admission to employment is fixed as follows :
14 years in industry (Act No. 2271 of 1920, ratifying Convention
No. 5).
14 years for employment at sea (Legislative Decree of 23 September
1925, ratifying Convention No. 7).
14 years for domestic employment in a private household (Emergency
Act No. 759 of 27 June 1937).
14 years if the child has not completed its elementary schooling, or
12 years if it has completed it, in commercial establishments and
shops of all kinds, hotels, restaurants, cafés and similar establishments.
10 years in the case of a family undertaking, on condition that the
work does not come into the category of hazardous or harmful
work, that mechanical power is not used, t h a t employment
does not exceed three hours a day, and that it does not stand in
the way of attendance at the elementary school.
One omission from this list m a y be mentioned in passing :
no minimum age has yet been laid down for employment in
agriculture. The Mission was not able to s t u d y the conditions
prevailing in rural districts, and it cannot therefore assess t h e
possibility of fixing a minimum age for this kind of employment
also.
As to t h e occupations which are a t present subject t o
regulation, t h e application of t h e minimum age for admission
to industrial employment in factories apparently meets with no
more difficulties in Greece t h a n in other European countries.
Employers in mechanised undertakings rather tend to lay down
as an internal rule of t h e establishment t h a t young persons shall be
over 14 years of age when engaged. This shows an encouraging
progress on t h e situation which was noted in 1929. In t h a t
year, in connection with t h e technical assistance given to Greece
b y t h e Delegation of t h e Health Committee of t h e League of
Nations, the Chief of t h e Social Insurance Section of t h e Inter-

CONDITIONS OF

EMPLOYMENT

131

national Labour Office went to Greece to study labour conditions
and their effects on the health of wage earners, and he found an
alarming number of children employed in factories.1
There is no doubt that progress has not been as marked in
the small workshops, where the enforcement of the minimum
age of 14 years would still require close supervision according
to the methods indicated below. Similarly, one only has to walk
along the street to be convinced that much organisation and
supervision are required before the minimum age of 14 years
for admission to employment becomes a reality in the small
itinerant trades. According to statements which the Mission
was not able to verify, this problem would seem also to exist in
domestic service.
Lastly, it must be noted that, in commercial establishments
properly so-called, including the hotel trade and cafés, where
the nature of the business may clearly have a harmful effect
on the moral education of very young wage earners, Greek
legislation allows a lowering of the minimum age of admission to
12 years for children holding a certificate showing that they
have completed their elementary schooling. This exception
seems all the more undesirable, since commercial activities
offer chances of promotion only to those who have a fairly
good education. Hence, there is a danger of encouraging precocious children, who are often the most intelligent, to sacrifice
the opportunity of completing their elementary education by
two years of additional schooling, in order to take on work which
gives them a small immediate profit at the expense of their
future.
Thus, the establishment of legislative measures to fix in all
cases the minimum age for admission to non-industrial employment at 14 years, and of supervisory measures intended effectively to eliminate the employment of children under 14 years
of age in activities which are not well organised, such as itinerant
trades, domestic service and handicrafts, would seem to be the
immediate task that should be undertaken before thinking of
raising to 15 years the age for admission to industrial employment or employment at sea, according to the standards of the
revised Conventions, although the practice already in force in
the largest industrial establishments might seem to justify
1

Cf.

L E A G U E OF N A T I O N S , H E A L T H ORGANISATION : Document M

(C.H./Greece 10), April 1929.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

such a legislative reform. By further raising the statutory age
for admission to this kind of work, one would merely be running
the risk of shifting child labour from the occupations where
the protection of a young worker is most easy, towards less
organised branches of activity which readily evade official
supervision, and which give young people very few chances
of vocational training and promotion. The abolition of child
labour in occupations of this latter category is an essential
measure for the safeguarding of their future as workers.
For this purpose, supervisory measures falling directly
within the normal competence of the Ministry of Labour should
be strengthened. This point will be dealt with later. Furthermore,
other measures are equally indispensable and require the cooperation of several ministries.
The co-operation of the Ministry of Public Education is
particularly necessary, for the enforcement of the minimum
age for admission to employment and compulsory school
attendance are two aspects of a single problem. According to
the information communicated to the Mission by the Ministry
of Public Education, there were in 1947 about 1,400,000 children
of school age (6 to 14 years), whereas the number of pupils
registered in the elementary and nursery schools amounted in
the same year to only 1,250,000. Since children attending
the nursery school have not yet reached school age and since
in that same year there were 922 such schools, it would not
be an over-estimation to put the number of pupils attending
these schools at between 40,000 and 50,000, a figure which
should be deducted from the above-mentioned total in order to
obtain the number of pupils who are going through their
compulsory school period. There would therefore be about
200,000 children of school age who are not registered at the
elementary schools. And do all those who are registered attend
the school ?
The number of existing schools and of teachers raises a
doubt whether attendance at elementary schools is effective
in the case of all children of school age. In 1947, when provision had been made for 18,172 teaching posts for the staff
of elementary and nursery schools, in practice these schools
had only 15,730 male and female teachers. That is to say,
theoretically every teacher would have had to teach 79 pupils,
if the distribution of schools and of the pupils were uniform
throughout the country. Such a uniform distribution does not

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

133

exist, and by reason of the movements of population caused
by present events the distribution of pupils is liable to sudden
changes which still further increase the lack of equilibrium.
In particular, the rural population of the northern districts,
which has taken refuge in the towns, swamps the schools there.
The Mission was told of elementary classes in the city of Athens
which at present have 120 and up to 150 pupils. It is obvious
that teaching there is not very attractive and that it is impossible
to check attendance.
Under these circumstances the need for re-establishing the
system of public education on a normal basis cannot be overemphasised. This measure of social reconstruction, which is
important in many respects, is an essential condition if the
problem of child labour is to be solved.
The co-ordination of measures of social assistance and of
child labour regulation is equally indispensable. Even if the
best of schools was prepared to accept them, the orphan, the
abandoned and the refugee child would leave it to seek their
own livelihood if subsistence were not provided by social
assistance measures.
It would seem that the capacity of the institutions for
providing relief for children without means of support needs to
be considerably increased so that these institutions may be
able to meet present requirements.
The members of the Mission had an opportunity of visiting
homes for orphans, which are most devotedly administered;
but the responsible authority told them that the urban and
rural orphanages of the Ministry of Social Insurance could only
accommodate 6,000 children \ while 4,000 other children were
maintained by private welfare institutions and 4,000 more were
billeted in families by the Ministry. Altogether then, about
14,000 children without means of support are assisted2, whereas,
1
At present the number of orphanages oí this Ministry is as follows :
30 homes for children of 6-13 years ; 29 orphanage training schools of
the urban type for boys of 14-18 years and 9 for girls ; 5 orphanages
of the rural type for boys of the same age. Note should be taken of
the 2very small number of public assistance institutions for girls.
To this figure should be added the number of children who are
given meals in special centres, estimated by the Ministry of Social
Insurance at 6,000 in February 1948 {Messager d'Athènes, 8 February
1948). But besides these children, who are assisted through permanent
services of the Ministry, there are those cared for by the emergency
relief service for refugees made homeless by the civil war ; the number
of children and young persons under 18 years assisted under this head
in the first fortnight of January 1948 is stated by the Ministry to have
been 169,080 (idem, 25 February 1948).

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

according to the same sources, at least 60,000 would require
assistance of this kind. It is estimated by those interested in
private assistance that the requirements which are not met would
seem to be even greater, and that the cases requiring assistance
exceed 200,000. Whatever be the exact extent of the requirements, it is obvious that the abolition of child labour cannot be
brought about so long as provision is not made for the maintenance of these homeless children.
The Mission is not competent to make suggestions concerning
the organisation of the budget for public relief, but it may
be hoped that the problem of assistance to children will not be
lost sight of in the allocation of any international resources
which may be placed at the disposal of the Greek Government.
The Mission desires, however, to lay stress on the fact that if
at present an unaccustomed number of children are driven by
want to take work at an unduly early age despite the regulations,
the problem is important even in normal times. Any rational
programme for the protection of children against premature
work should be supplemented by a suitable programme for
assistance, as was well brought out by the resolution on the
protection of children and young workers adopted by the
International Labour Conference at its 27th Session (Paris,
1945).
In order most effectively to combine social measures concerning the education of children, their maintenance, and their
admission to employment above a reasonably high age limit, it
would therefore be necessary to organise an interdepartmental
committee for the protection of children, responsible for studying
the problems the different aspects of which fall within the
competence of various ministries, and to prepare the necessary
measures of co-ordination.
The Mission would suggest that the Ministry of Labour
should take the initiative in proposing the setting up of this
committee, as this Ministry would be the first to benefit by such
co-ordinating machinery in carrying out its duties concerning
the abolition of child labour.
Methods of Admission to Employment.
. Work books. Since its origin (Act No. 4029 of 1912) the
legislation concerning child labour provides, at least as far as
industrial employment is concerned, for the application of a
measure of supervision which can be very useful, both for

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

135

ensuring compliance with the provisions concerning the
minimum age of admission and for initiating measures to protect
the health of the young worker accepted for employment.
This is the issue of a work book, which is conditional, under
the legislation in force, on the results of a medical examination
for fitness for employment. In 1937, the obligation to have a
work book was extended to young persons in domestic service.
This system has been amended on several occasions : in
1936 the right to issue the work book, which originally was
exercised by the mayor of the municipality concerned, was
entrusted to the labour inspectors (Emergency Act No. 199,
section 7). Emergency Act No. 547 of 1937 required that the
book should be renewed annually on the basis of a new medical
examination. From the strictly legal point of view, the basis
of the system is therefore satisfactory. It would seem,
however, that it needs to be reinforced in respect of practical
application.
The Mission gave particular attention to studying the
working of this system, because with certain modifications of
detail it might in the future lead to the ratification of the two
Conventions on medical examination for fitness for employment,
adopted in 1946 by the International Labour Conference, one
for the admission of children and young persons to industrial
employment, and the other for admission to non-industrial
occupations. 1
Judging by the small number of work books issued in districts
like that of Athens, where a number of young workers were
found in the small workshops visited by the Mission, it seems
doubtful whether all wage earners of the age categories subject
to regulation, that is to say under 16 years, are provided
with a work book. The central labour inspection office at
Athens had only issued 55 work books in 1945-46 and 98
in 1947 up to 30 October. The number was 407 in 1936, 696
in 1937, 710 in 1938, and 247 in 1939. In the Kallithea district,
the municipal dispensary, which serves a population of 60,000
to 70,000 inhabitants and is responsible for carrying out medical
examinations of young wage earners to check their fitness for
employment, had only made 47 examinations during the first
nine months of 1947. Such examinations should be carried
1
It should be noted t h a t Greece ratified the Medical Examination
of Young Persons (Sea) Convention, 1921, in 1930.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

out not only for the issue of new work books, but also for the
annual renewal of the validity of work books which have already
been obtained. In practice, as the inspection service and the
employers confess, the annual renewal has never yet been
carried out ; although the work books have pages attached for
renewal, these pages were blank in the case of all the work
books already in use which the Mission was able to
examine.
Certainly, the difficulties which have hitherto interfered
with the regular working of this system must be taken into
account. They did not consist only in the well-known shortage
of labour inspection officials. There was often no qualified
medical staff to carry out properly the examinations for fitness
for employment. The medical officers of the municipal relief
services, to whom most labour inspection offices refer for examination of young applicants for employment, can hardly have
the requisite knowledge of the various types of industrial work
and the physical aptitudes that each job requires. Nevertheless, the development of social insurance medical services
now provides for this purpose a personnel which is specialised
in the medical care of workers, and which might be used with
advantage for examining young workers with a view to
issuing or renewing work books. Already one of the labour
inspection and employment offices, that of Piraeus, sends
young applicants for employment to the dispensaries of the
I.K.A. It would seem quite suitable that this method should
become general, on condition that the State repays to the medical
insurance dispensaries the cost of special examinations, so that
such expenditure may not have to be borne in part by the
insured persons of the I.K.A.
After such a system of supervision has been in force long
enough for its working to be well established, it would seem
desirable to contemplate extending the issue of work books and
the medical examination for fitness for employment to young
industrial workers from 16 to 18 years of age, and to young
workers undertaking any other regulated occupation, whatever
it may be. This would be useful as a means of supervision
in all occupations in respect of which a minimum age of admission is fixed to ensure that this limit is observed, and, furthermore, there is little reason to discontinue the periodical examination for physical fitness for employment at 16 years, when
in several other respects Greek legislation protects the health

CONDITIONS OF

EMPLOYMENT

137

of young workers against occupational risks (prohibition of
employment in various dangerous and strenuous operations,
regulations as to carrying of loads, prohibition of night work,
etc.). Such a reform would also have the advantage of bringing
Greece nearer to ratification of the 1946 Conventions.
Special juvenile placement services. Suggestions of a general
nature are made in another chapter 1 with regard to methods
of placing under the Greek system, which is based on the obligation to apply to public services for obtaining employment.
Those operating the existing services are of opinion that juvenile
labour still very largely evades this obligation. The engagement
of children and young persons is most frequently arranged
by direct agreement between the parents and employers.
This fact is also shown by the small number of work books at
present issued, as has been mentioned above.
Nevertheless, vocational guidance is particularly useful in
the case of the first employment accepted. It would therefore
seem appropriate to refer here to the desirability, both for the
protection of young wage earners and for the rational organisation of the labour market, of young applicants for employment
applying first to the public employment offices. This would
doubtless be easier if these services had a personnel specialised in
the vocational guidance and placing of juvenile labour and had
developed practical means of following up the results of placing
in order to help the young workers to adapt themselves to their
new way of life, for the parents would then find it advantageous
to avail themselves of the public services.
It is therefore suggested, over and above the more general
recommendations contained in the chapter concerning employment, that the necessary measures should be taken to train a
personnel specialised in juvenile placement and to organise,
wherever it is found necessary, tripartite committees for the
purpose of assisting the public services in following up the
placement results for this juvenile labour.
Protection of Young Workers
Greek law contains a number of provisions intended more
particularly to protect young workers, generally up to 18 years,
against fatigue or the hazards to health and life involved by
certain kinds of employment. These provisions are at present
1

See Chapter I I I , pp. 65 et seq.
io

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

scattered about in a great number of Acts and Decrees. If, as
has already been suggested, they were collected in a single text,
it would be easier to supervise their application and also to see
whether the protective system has gaps which should be filled.
For such a legislation completely to fulfil its purpose of
protection in the face of changing circumstances—such as the
introduction of new industrial technical methods or changes
in custom concerning the employment of juvenile l a b o u r periodical revision is even more necessary than in any other
legislative domain. It would seem that this work of revision
should be undertaken by the special committee for the protection of children and young workers, the setting up of which has
already been suggested, in collaboration with the technical services
for industrial hygiene and safety, taking account also of the
experience accumulated by the general labour inspectorate.
Furthermore, among the measures which have been suggested
in the chapter on employment x , those concerning vocational
training are particularly important for young workers. Failing
any regulations on apprenticeship, it is obvious that, at present,
young wage earners who are regarded as apprentices may be
used as productive workers rather than as persons learning their
trade. Should regulations on apprenticeship be prepared,
they should aim at protecting apprentices individually while
providing for the training of the skilled labour which the
economy requires.
It would seem particularly desirable to endeavour to avoid
the overstrain imposed at present on young persons who, after
a full day's work at the shop or workshop, receive their vocational training in the evening schools, thus having a daily
working period of at least 11 hours. However, it must be
pointed out that, at present, there is no means of free technical
training other than the evening schools, access to which is
reserved for persons already employed. Hence families are
encouraged to overwork their children, making them take
employment without preliminary training in order that they
should simultaneously exercise a wage-earning trade and receive
their vocational training in such courses as are free of charge.
This double task undoubtedly has harmful effects on the health
of young persons.
It is therefore suggested that there should be a development
of the institution of day vocational courses for young workers
1

See Chapter III, pp. 77 et seq.

CONDITIONS O F EMPLOYMENT

139

of less than 16 years of age and that attendance at these courses
should be legally included in the day's work, without any
reduction of wages, in accordance with section 14 of Act No.
5197 of 1931 concerning vocational education and the provisions
on the apprenticeship contract, which were included in Article
740 of the Civil Code of 1945 but were not incorporated in the
Civil Code of 1940 when it was brought back into force in May
1945. In places where the establishment of special vocational
courses for young persons is found to be impossible, it would
seem desirable to reduce the statutory hours of work for young
persons attending evening schools intended for adults so that
they may have a short rest before attending these schools.
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN

All the suggestions made in the previous sections of this
chapter apply to women workers as well as to men. Some of
the problems which have been dealt with above, like that of
home work, predominantly concern female labour, and reference
is also made, in discussing the problem of wages, to the special
position of women workers. 1 The few remarks in this section will therefore only briefly refer to certain problems which
are specifically feminine or which are made yet more serious
by the conditions under which most women workers are living.
The most important feminine problem is that of maternity
protection. In the international field, it is dealt with by the
1919 Convention on childbirth, ratified by Greece in 1920.
As stated in the chapter concerning social security s , the
system of social insurance, which should meet one of the main
requirements of the Convention—that of providing an allowance
sufficient to maintain the mother and the child during the leave
of six weeks before and six weeks after childbirth—in Greece
only partially meets this obligation, since several of the special
insurance funds pay no maternity allowance and others only
allocate a lump sum. It is therefore suggested that the rules of
the sickness insurance funds should be modified in order that
maternity allowances which meet the requirements of the
Convention may be granted.
In connection with the same problem, it would seem that
the need for setting up a larger number of maternity homes,
1
2

See Chapter II, pp. 40 and 44-45.
See Chapter V below, p. 162.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

crèches and day-nurseries J is keenly felt by the population of
the country. While admitting that financial difficulties at
present limit the development of all useful social institutions,
it may be held that there are strong arguments in favour of
giving the above-mentioned institutions a high priority in
plans of social development. They not only give very valuable
assistance to mothers of families who are obliged to do wagepaid work so as to contribute to the maintenance of the family,
thus being burdened with a double task ; they also relieve young
girls of the duty, which too often falls on them, of looking
after the youngest of the family, thus preventing them from
attending school. The results of this practice, which is very
widespread, are shown in Greece by the high percentage of
illiterates. According to information supplied to the Mission
by the Ministry of Public Education, illiteracy amounted in
1940 to 52 per cent, among women, as against only 24 per cent.
among the male population. Since the lack of general culture is
a serious obstacle to obtaining advanced vocational training,
it is obvious that illiteracy also involves a risk of lowering the
economic status of women workers by reducing their chances of
promotion, in spite of the natural skills and the remarkable
adaptability to more and more varied employments—which
many employers readily admitted before the members of the
Mission—-that Greek women have shown.
It would also seem that the social institutions which are
at present developing for working girls, on the lines of the
activities of the workers' club or other subsidised social institutions, should be established in a greater number of industrial
centres and that they should offer educational facilities to
remedy the deficiencies of the general and vocational training
of girls, and at the same time give them some notion of housekeeping and child welfare, knowledge which is necessary to
enable them more easily to co-ordinate their family responsibilities with the duties of their working life.
SPECIAL CATEGORIES OF WORKERS

The conditions of employment of certain categories of
workers, such as dockers, seamen and railwaymen, are dealt
1
According to information published in October 1947 by the Ministry
of Co-ordination, in 1946-47 about 4,500 children in 47 institutions were
cared for during the day.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

141

with under separate arrangements. Thus the conditions of
seamen are the concern of the Ministry of Mercantile Marine
while those of railwaymen are dealt with by the Ministry of
Transport. Special legislation has been enacted to regulate
the wages and conditions of employment of dockers, seamen
and other transport workers, and in some cases the legislation
is inspired by Conventions adopted by the International Labour
Conference.
Dockers
There are three international Conventions applying specially
to dockers, namely, the Marking of Weight (Packages Transported by Vessels) Convention, 1929, the Protection Against
Accidents (Dockers) Convention, 1929, and the Protection
Against Accidents (Dockers) (Revised) Convention, 1932.1
Greece ratified the first of these in 1935 but it has so far not
ratified either of the others. An Act to ratify the Marking of
Weight (Packages Transported by Vessels) Convention was
enacted on 30 October 1935.2 The Act declared that a Decree
would regulate the necessary details for carrying out the obligations it prescribed, and would determine the manner in which
the weight would be checked and marked on the packages.
In its annual report on the application of Conventions which
was made to the International Labour Office in 1947, the
Greek Government indicated that it had not yet been possible
to issue the Decree fixing details for the application of the
Convention, but that the competent services of the Ministry
of Labour and the Department of Finance had agreed to take
the necessary action in this connection. The report also stated
that the customs authorities and police at ports and the labour
inspection service are responsible for the application of the
provisions of the Convention and added that general regulations
respecting the employment of dockers, which are in course
of preparation, will include provisions relating to the application
of the Convention.
It is gratifying to note that the necessary action for prescribing the details for the application of the Convention is now
1
The Protection Against Accidents (Dockers) Convention, 1929, was
closed to further ratifications when the revised Convention of 1932
came into force.
2
Cf. L.S., 1935, Gr. 11.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

being taken, and it is to be hoped that the Convention will soon
be fully enforced.
For the placing of dockers in employment, special offices
have been opened at the larger ports, such as Piraeus, Salónica
and Patras. Employment offices for dockers exist in eleven
such ports, while in a number of the smaller ports dock labour
committees have been formed.1 These committees—to the
number of thirty—include representatives of the employers and
of the workers. The chairman of the committee in each case
is the local representative of the Ministry of Labour. Under
codified Act No. 5167 of 1932, it was provided that dock labour
committees should be set up in every Greek port, except in the
smallest ports, in which the harbourmaster was to have the
rights and duties of the dock labour committee. Among the
duties of the dock labour committees were the following : to
prescribe the maximum number of workers necessary to ensure
the carrying out of dock work in the port without interruption
or difficulty ; to supply workers with work books ; to keep,
through their chairman, an accurate register of all workers to
whom work books have been supplied, and to suggest any
measures calculated to establish as far as possible a balance
between the supply and the demand for labour (introduction
of a system of employment in rotation, issue of permanent or
temporary licences for engagement in the occupation of docker,
etc.) ; to revise the lists of dockers at that time employed in each
port ; and to draw up rules for the carrying out of dock work
and scales for the workers' wages and for the cost of dock work
in general. It was further provided that a dock labour office
might be set up in connection with every dock labour com1
Provisions concerning employment offices for dockers, and concerning the regulation of work in the ports, are included in the following
Acts and Decrees : Codified Act No. 5167/1932, regulating loading and
unloading work in ports (cf. L.S., 1932, Gr. 9) ; Act No. 5944/1933, amending
and supplementing the Order of 4 March 1932 regulating loading and
unloading work in ports (L.S., 1933, Gr. 4) ; Emergency Act No. 381/1936,
amending and supplementing Acts Nos. 5167 and 5944 regulating loading
and unloading work in ports ; Emergency Act No. 2212/1940 amending
and supplementing certain provisions of the laws regulating loading
and unloading work in ports ; Act No. 1749/1944, amending and supplementing certain provisions of the laws regulating loading and unloading
work in ports ; Decree of 4 January 1933, concerning the chairmanship
of the committees for the regulation of loading and unloading work in
ports ; Decree of 27 September 1940, concerning the composition, organisation and operation of the dock labour offices so far set up ; Decree
of 27 September 1940, concerning the status of employees of the dock
labour offices ; Decree of 31 May 1940, regulating the administration
of the special funds of the dock labour offices.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

143

mittee. A separate Act (No. 4748 of 13 May 1930), concerning
the organisation of the port of Piraeus, was not affected by the
provisions of Act No. 5167.
Unemployment among the dockers in Greece has been serious
owing to the severe damage to ports and harbours during the
war and to the fact that trade could not be rapidly and fully
restored when the war was over. Recovery is proceeding
slowly. The volume of imports and exports has been increasing
though the trade of the ports is still far from normal. Moreover,
some time will probably elapse before the cranes and other
cargo-handling machinery at the principal ports can be replaced.
Meanwhile, the lack of mechanical loading and unloading facilities means that larger numbers of dockers have to be employed
in handling cargoes. This helps to provide employment for
greater numbers than would otherwise be the case, but at a
heavy cost in physical effort to the men concerned.
There has always been a certain amount of seasonal employment in some of the Greek ports, resulting, for example,
from the export of such products as currants, leaf tobacco
and olive oil.
To cope with the work of the ports some thousands of
" regular " dockers have been registered and provided with
work books. There are also large numbers of " casual " or
" free " dockers who are taken on in rush periods and who
may only be employed for a few months during the year. 1
The dockers have been well organised in their trade unions
and have been able to exercise a measure of control over the
number of new entrants to the industry. This was no doubt
beneficial to the regular dockers, whose employment was to
this extent protected. On the other hand, it would seem that an
insufficient number of younger men have been taken into the
industry in recent years, with the result that the average age
of the dockers may now be unduly high.
Dockers' wages are regulated by methods different from
those which apply in industry generally. Much of the work
is remunerated at tonnage rates, which vary from port to port
according to the nature of the cargoes, the difficulty of the
work and the kind of equipment which is available. As in
other industries, the wage rates for dockers have been con1
According to figures supplied by the Ministry of Labour, there
were 6,000 dockers with work books in October 1947, and approximately
2,000 casual dockers.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

siderably increased in view of the devaluation of the currency.
In October 1947, when the Mission was in Greece, the official
wage rates, fixed by Ministerial Order, were 70 times more
than the pre-war figures, but the wages paid in actual fact
were higher than the official rates.
Special conditions exist in the port of Piraeus both in regard
to the regulation of employment and to the system of calculating wages. Piraeus is the most important port in Greece, since
a high proportion of the country's imports pass through it and
it handles the greater part of the country's exports.
Employment in the port of Piraeus is regulated by the port
organisation which was established by Act No. 4748 of 1930.
It would appear that the number of regular dockers with
work books is now insufficient and that considerably more
casual workers are emplojred than previously. This is due
partly to the thinning out of the ranks of the regular dockers
and partly to the necessity for employing larger gangs owing to
the destruction of cranes and conveyors. When the organisation
was established it was found necessary to close the industry to
new entrants and then to pension off a large number of those
on the books, owing to the improvement in the port's facilities
and the consequent reduction in the number of men required.
During the war the dockers suffered serious privations. Hundreds died of hunger, others disappeared, and many of those
who remain on the books are too infirm to work. Of those who
are still at work, the older men, who now form a high proportion
of the total, find it difficult to stand the strain under the present
exhausting conditions.
Instead of being paid according to tonnage rates, the dockers
at the port of Piraeus receive a daily wage based on a certain
output, and this wage is paid to the permanent men, even if
they have been unable to work through no fault of their own.
The " casual " or " free " dockers, on the other hand, are only
paid for work which they actually perform. In 1945, in view
of the growing difficulties, the output required from a gang of
men in order to qualify for a daily wage was reduced. It was
found, however, that the wages remained inadequate and the
dockers claimed that the basic wage should be increased. The
Government decided to reduce still further the required output
and at the same time to increase the size of the gangs. The
result was that though the basic wage remained low, a greater
number of men could qualify for it in a shorter time, with the

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

145

further result that by working a whole day, a gang could earn
a day's wage four or five times over. Thus while the official
rate for a day's work was kept down, the actual wages were
considerably higher.
It will be seen that an unhealthy situation exists in the
ports of Greece, both in regard to the composition of the dockers'
force and in regard to the system of wage calculation. A
solution for both of these problems will presumably have to
wait until conditions are normal. It would be difficult to put
the wages system back onto a sound basis while the devaluation of the currency continues, and it would be no less difficult
to calculate how many new work books should be issued,
especially at Piraeus, until the restored cargo-handling equipment is in operation and the labour requirements are more
exactly known.
On the other hand, the lists of dockers should be reviewed
at the earliest possible opportunity, so as to strengthen and
rejuvenate the regular labour force available for dock work.
This would increase the number of dockers who enjoy the benefits
provided by the possession of work books and reduce the number
of " casual " dockers who can only find employment at times
when the " regular " men are not numerous enough to deal
with the work.
A reference to the wholesale destruction which took place
in the ports was made in Chapter II. It is vital not only to
the movement of Greek trade, but also to a solution of the
problems of dock labour in Greece, that the ports should be put
into full working order again as soon as possible.
Railwaymen
As already indicated, the Ministry of Transport is responsible
for matters relating to the conditions of labour of railwaymen.
According to figures supplied by the Ministry, there are some
11,500 railwaymen employed in Greece, including regular and
temporary personnel employed by the State railways and private
companies. These figures do not include the personnel, approximately 4,500 in number, employed on light railways and tramways.
The employment situation on the Greek railways is affected
by the destruction which took place during the war and by the
continued damage which the railways are suffering as a consequence of the civil war. The result is, as already mentioned

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

in Chapter II, that the services are interrupted and a large
part of the system is out of action.
The Greek State Railways (E.E.K.) employ at the moment
about 6,000 regular personnel, and another 1,500 workers and
technical staff engaged on the repair of the tracks. Regular
and temporary personnel employed by the Piraeus-AthensPeloponnese Railway (S.P.A.P.) total 3,500. Other railway
undertakings include the Thessaly Railway (S.Th.), the NorthWest Greece Railway (S.B.D.E.), the Pyrgos-Katakolon Railway
(P.K.) and the Franco-Greek Railway (S.G.E.).
Wage rates for railwaymen are fixed by the Minister of
Transport in agreement with the Minister of Labour. Scales
were drawn up for the various categories of the personnel in
1925, and they remained in force until the occupation. Increases
or decreases in the rates were made in accordance with changes
in the cost of living. Before the war the various adjustments
were discussed with the trade unions, but during the occupation the changes became more frequent and then the discussions
did not always take place. Rates are fixed for the highest
and lowest grades by the Government (i.e., by the Ministry of
Finance) and between these upper and lower limits the rates
for 120 categories are inserted. When the Mission was in
Greece the position was that the last formal adjustment had
taken place in February 1946. Subsequently an increase of
25 per cent, had been granted, followed by a further award of
100,000 drachmae a month to all workers and salaried employees.
A problem which has troubled the Greek railwaymen for
some years and which is still causing them concern, is that of
the eight-hour day. The hours of work and rest periods for
railwaymen have been regulated since April 1926 by an Order
of the Minister of Transport made in virtue of Act No. 2269
of 24 June 1920, which ratified the Hours of Work (Industry)
Convention, 1919. The Convention provided that the hours of
work in industry (including the transport of passengers or goods
by railways) should not exceed eight per day or forty-eight
per week. To meet the needs of the railway service in certain
countries it was, however, further provided (Article 5) that :
1. In exceptional cases where it is recognised that the provisions
of Article 2 cannot be applied, but only in such cases, agreements
between workers' and employers' organisations concerning the
daily limit of work over a longer period of time may be given the
force of regulations, if the Government, to which these agreements
shall be submitted, so decides.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

147

2. The average number of hours worked per week over the
number of weeks covered by any such agreement shall not exceed
forty-eight.
Although the Convention was ratified by Greece, the eighthour day has not been strictly applied on the Greek railways.
The locomotive men and other travelling staffs work a ninehour day, permanent way men nine hours, including one hour's
travelling time, station staffs ten hours and level-crossing
keepers twelve hours.
The Pan-Hellenic Railwaymen's Federation approached the
Mission on this subject and indicated that it attached great
importance to the application of the eight-hour day to the
Greek railways in accordance with the terms of the Convention.
On the other hand, the Greek Government fears that a reduction
of hours in present circumstances might increase the financial
burdens of the railways and thinks that a reduction can only
be considered when the economic situation of the country has
improved. 1
While it may be difficult to bring about the desired changes
at the present time, the question of the eight-hour day on the
railways would seem to be one that should be further examined.
Seamen
It is common knowledge that the conditions of seamen have
been subject to a considerable amount of international regulation. The International Labour Conference has adopted a
number of Conventions on this subject and five of these have
been been ratified by Greece, namely, the Minimum Age (Sea)
Convention, 1920, the Unemployment Indemnity (Shipwreck)
Convention, 1920, the Placing of Seamen Convention, 1920, the
Minimum Age (Trimmers and Stokers) Convention, 1921, and the
Medical Examination of Young Persons (Sea) Convention, 1921.2
1
2

Communication from the Ministry of Transport.

The Conventions not yet ratified by Greece are as follows : Seamen's
Articles of Agreement, 1926 ; Repatriation of Seamen, 1926 ; Officers'
Competency Certificates, 1936 ; Holidays with Pay (Sea), 1936; Shipowners' Liability (Sick and Injured Seamen), 1936 ; Sickness Insurance
(Sea) Convention, 1936 ; Hours of Work and Manning (Sea), 1936 ;
Minimum Age (Sea) (Revised), 1936 ; Food and Catering (Ships' Crews),
1946 ; Certificates of Ships' Cooks, 1946 ; Social Security (Seafarers),
1946 ; Seafarers' Pensions, 1946 ; Paid Vacations (Seafarers), 1946 ;
Medical Examination (Seafarers), 1946 ; Certification of Able Seamen,
1946 ; Accommodation of Crews, 1946 ; Wages, Hours of Work and
Manning (Sea), 1946.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

In regard to the Conventions already ratified by Greece the
following notes may be of interest.
The Minimum Age (Sea) Convention, 1920, was ratified by a
Legislative Decree of 23 September 1925, which was confirmed
by Act No. 4211 of 1929. The control of the age of young
persons employed on board vessels is ensured by means of the
seaman's book, in which the date of birth is entered. A list
of the crew must be made up for all vessels, and all members
of the crew, including those between 14 and 16 years of age,
are to be entered on the list.
The Unemployment Indemnity (Shipwreck) Convention,
1920, was ratified by the above-mentioned Legislative Decree
and the Decree was approved by Act No. 4004 of 1929. Under
this legislation the indemnity required by Article 2 of the
Convention is not to exceed two months' wages. Any member
of the crew not in receipt of monthly wages is to receive a fixed.
sum from the port or consular authorities, who must take into
account the current wages at the time of engagement of the
seaman. The provisions of the above Act are applied equally
whether the vessel is lost or abandoned. As the Commercial
Code provides that the wages of the personnel shall be paid up
to the end of the period of service, in all cases of shipwreck
the payment of the indemnity provided for in the Convention
begins from the day following the shipwreck. The payment of
wages ceases on the same day. A proportionate allowance for
food is taken into account in calculating the indemnity payable
under the Convention.
The Placing of Seamen Convention, 1920, was ratified by
Act No. 4360 of 1929 and is applied by Act No. 192 of 30 September 19361 concerning the placing of seamen in employment.
A Decree of 28 November 1934 provided for the establishment
of seamen's employment offices in all towns in which there
are port authorities, and a Decree of 3 January 1937 regulated
the composition of managing committees of seamen's employment offices and the working of the offices.
Under Act No. 192 it was provided that the special seamen's employment offices should be exclusively responsible
for finding employment for seamen on board vessels in Greece
and abroad, though this duty might be entrusted to the harbour
authorities in ports in which seamen's employment offices did
1

Cf. L.S., 1936, Gr. 4.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

149

not exist. The duties of the seamen's employment offices, in
addition to finding employment for seamen, were to be as
follows :
(a) to suggest and carry out any measures tending to maintain
equilibrium as far as possible between the supply of and demand
for seamen's labour ;
(b) to supervise the fulfilment of the obligations incurred by the
State in pursuance of international Conventions with respect to the
finding of employment for unemployed seamen and the minimum
age for the admission of children and young persons to various
branches of seamen's work ;
(c) by means of inspections carried out on the spot to supervise
the conditions under which seamen's work is performed on board
vessels, in particular from the point of view of hygiene and protection against occupational risks—acting in collaboration with the
other competent maritime services—and to suggest measures to be
taken to improve the said conditions ;
(d) to issue certificates of competency to seamen in the mercantile
marine in conformity with the provisions in force ;
(e) to keep detailed statistics of unemployed seamen.
Other provisions of the Act dealt with the management of the
offices, the powers and duties of the directors in charge of the
offices, the methods to be employed for placing seamen in
employment, and so on.
The Minimum Age (Trimmers and Stokers) Convention,
1921, was ratified by Act No. 4505 of 7 April 1930. Provisions
concerning its application are contained in a Decree of 3 January
1937 concerning the management committees of seamen's
employment offices and the working of the offices. The
position with regard to this Convention is similar to that which
applies in the case of the Minimum Age (Sea) Convention, 1920,
which has already been mentioned.
The Medical Examination of Young Persons (Sea) Convention, 1921, was ratified by Act No. 4674 of 12 May 1930. Medical
examinations for seamen take place at the time of recruitment,
when a seaman's book is issued, and subsequently after two
years of service, when a special permit is granted (e.gr., for
seamen and stokers). A further examination takes place before
a certificate or diploma is issued. It is not clear, however,
whether these arrangements are strictly in accordance with the
terms of the Convention, which prescribe medical examinations
at intervals of not more than one year.
The wages of seamen are regulated in a different manner
from those of workers in shore industries. During the war

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

collective agreements were signed in London between representatives of the Greek authorities who were managing the requisitioned Greek vessels and representatives of the officers' and
seamen's organisations. The collective agreements dealt not
only with wages but also with a number of other problems
relating to conditions of service. When the Mission was in
Greece the agreements signed in London in 1943 were still in
force. Since then account has been taken of the continued
devaluation of the currency and new collective agreements for
passenger and cargo vessels have been signed. The agreements
were ratified by the Minister of Mercantile Marine and published
by him on 11 December 1947. They followed upon the signature of collective agreements between the employers' and
workers' organisations which fixed new wage scales for workers
in shore industries and which was ratified by Decision No. 927/
1947 of the Council of Ministers.1
The two agreements for passenger and cargo vessels were
signed by the Director of Labour of the Ministry of Mercantile
Marine and by the representatives of the shipowners and of the
officers' and seamen's organisations. The agreements set out
new wage scales and bonuses for officers and ratings in all
departments. It was provided that the agreements should
come into force retroactively as from 1 November 1947 and that
they should expire at the end of six months unless they were
denounced earlier by the signatories in consequence of a readjustment of the wages of workers and technicians in industry.
Seamen are registered for employment in accordance with
the above-mentioned Acts. Seamen's articles usually run for
six months and are renewable. The ships remain abroad for
long periods, but it is customary for seamen to return home
after a year and this practice creates vacancies for others.
No statistics are available as to the number of seamen seeking
employment, but thsre was considerable unemployment immediately after the war owing to the serious losses sustained by
the Greek mercantile marine. In 1945 and 1946 a number of
unemployed seamen were drafted to foreign ports with a view
to placing them on board vessels flying the Greek flag and on
which seamen had been engaged without the necessary qualifications. Since then unemployment has been much reduced, as
the losses of the Greek mercantile marine have been largely
1

See Chapter II, p. 42.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

151

made good by the acquisition of vessels from other countries.
There is, however, some unemployment among stokers, as
the vessels purchased from abroad include 100 Liberty ships
which are oil burning. In any case, it is difficult to find employment in the Greek mercantile marine for all those who wish
to follow the sea ; accordingly, plans are being made to promote
fishing and sponge fishing in order to provide employment for
those who wish to work at sea but cannot be absorbed in other
ways.
There is room for an extension of the training facilities,
for seamen. At the moment there are no training schools or
training ships for ratings. There is, however, a State school
for masters and there are private schools for engineers. Ships'
cooks have to be certificated. Plans have been drawn up for
a new and well-equipped State school for masters, engineers,
radio officers, stokers, cooks and others. The Greek Government is aware of the need for expanding the training facilities,
and its representatives at the Maritime Session of the International Labour Conference held in Seattle in 1946 voted in
favour of the Conventions concerning the certification of able
seamen and of ships' cooks. It is not likely, however, that the
development of training facilities for seafarers will be rapid in
view of the financial and material difficulties of the present time.
It will have been noted that Greece has not ratified any
of the maritime Conventions adopted since 1921. A number of
these Conventions were not adopted until 1946 and presumably
there has not yet been time for them to be considered fully.
As in the case of many other countries, the ratification of some
of the earlier Conventions was no doubt prevented by the war.
Some new ratifications of these Conventions have, however,
recently been received, and others are under consideration in
certain maritime countries.
The Holidays with Pay (Sea) Convention, 1936, has been
superseded by the Paid Vacations (Seafarers) Convention, 1946,
and the Hours of Work and Manning (Sea) Convention, 1936,
by the Wages, Hours of Work and Manning (Sea) Convention,
1946, and consequently the Greek Government will doubtless
wish to give consideration to the possibility of ratifying the
later Convention in each case. But there are two other Conventions of 1936—the Officers' Competency Certificates Convention
and the Shipowners' Liability (Sick and Injured Seamen) Convention—which are of great importance for the safety of ships

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

and the protection of crews, and it is to be hoped that as conditions in Greece become more normal, very serious consideration
will be given to the possibility of ratifying and applying these
Conventions. As regards the Conventions adopted at Seattle
in 1946, they are still under consideration in most of the maritime
countries because they call for lengthy study and in some cases
for considerable legislative changes. There is, however, reason
to believe that a number of ratifications will be received in the
near future, and it is therefore hoped that Greece, listed in the
texts of most of these Conventions as being one of the important
maritime countries whose ratifications can help to bring the
Conventions into effective operation, will do all in its power to
ratify several of the Seattle Conventions as well as the pre-war
Conventions mentioned above.

CHAPTER V
SOCIAL INSURANCE
Social Insurance Institutions
The social insurance institutions at present existing in
Greece form a complicated whole which is not the result of any
general principles, but springs rather from historical developments. In Greece, as in the majority of European countries,
social insurance originated in mutual benefit institutions
established for the wage earners of certain occupations or of
certain undertakings. Act No. 2868 of 1922 1 on the compulsory
insurance of wage earners lays down general regulations for all
social insurance institutions. Apart from this Act, there is a
series of other Acts and Decrees dealing with a certain number
of specialised institutions. Most of these funds cover invalidity,
old-age and death risks, i.e., they deal with pension insurance.
Others cover the risks of sickness or unemployment. There
are, of course, funds which cover several of these risks simultaneously. The scope and methods of operation of each fund
must be clearly laid down in its rules, which are subject to the
approval of the Ministry of Labour or, in the case of certain
funds, of another Ministry, as, for example, seamen's funds, which
come within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Mercantile Marine.
The 1922 Act provides for the creation of State pension funds
for wage earners who are not members of the pension funds of
undertakings or of workers' organisations. A central institution, Idryma Koinonikon Asfaliseon (I.K.A.), was set up by
Act No. 6298 of 1934. It began to operate on 1 December 1937
in Athens and Piraeus, and its work was subsequently
extended to cover other districts.
Since the promulgation of Act No. 6298 of 1934 2, the
creation of new funds, "with the exception of subsidiary funds
for granting supplementary benefits, has been forbidden.
1
2

Cf. L.S., 1922, Gr. 3.
L.S., 1934, Gr. 7.
il

154

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Membership of a subsidiary fund does not confer exemption
from the liability for compulsory insurance with I.K.A. Funds
which existed before the promulgation of the Act continued
in existence, and the members of such main funds were not
compelled to become members of I.K.A., at any rate for the
purpose of the risks covered by the main fund itself. Furthermore, the same Act provided for the establishment of two new
main funds, one for persons engaged in commerce and the other
for artisans and small traders. The Act encouraged previously
existing institutions to amalgamate and, in certain cases, it
even made compulsory by Decree the dissolution of a certain
number of them. Nevertheless, the number of funds, and even
the number of main funds, has consistently increased, as the
following table shows :
TABLE XI.

NUMBER OF FUNDS FROM 1922 TO 1946
Number of funds

Year

1922
1934
1938
1940
1946

Main

Subsidiary

Total

13
72
98
104
102

3
21
36
46
66

16
93
134
150
168

Among these funds, mention should be made of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, created by Act No. 118 of 1945,
which began its operations in 1945, at first in Athens and
Piraeus, and gradually extended them to other districts.
The membership of the various funds comprises either
wage earners or independent workers, or both together. Certain
funds are for a single purpose only, i.e., sickness, pension or
unemployment insurance. But there are also funds which
deal with two or even three of these branches of insurance.
Certain funds provide only for single lump-sum payments in
the event of death or retirement, while others grant pensions
with or without lump-sum payments.. The number of social
insurance funds on 1 January 1946, classified according to type
of membership and risks covered, was as shown in table X I I .
Of the funds shown in this table, some are not functioning
at the moment and others are of very minor importance. The

SOCIAL INSURANCE

TABLE

XII.

DISTRIBUTION

OF

FUNDS,

155

ON

1

JANUARY

1946,

ACCORDING TO MEMBERSHIP AND RISKS COVERED

Nature of funds and risks covered

A. Main
funds:
Pension, sickness, unemployment
Pension, sickness
. . . .
Pension, unemployment .
Pension (retirement) . . .

Wage
earners

Independent
workers

Mixed

Total

1
11
2
36
36
4

7

1
4

1
11
3
47
36
4

90

7

5

102

26
12
20

3

Pension and retirement

2
3

29
14
23

Total number
sidiary funds

58

5

3

66

148

12

8

168

Total

number

B. Subsidiary

of

main

funds:

Grand total

of

sub-

majority of the funds are under the supervision of the Minister
of Labour, but 24 of them are attached to other ministries.
As a result of the existence of so varied and so many insurance
institutions, it is almost impossible to attempt any detailed
description of them, or to collect the necessary information to
analyse with any precision the working of social insurance.
In particular, statistical data are very often lacking, and supply
only partial and necessarily incomplete results. Account
should be taken of the fact that, during the occupation and
after the war, emergency measures became necessary ; some
of these applied to a particular fund, and others were confined
to a particular matter. Furthermore, as a result of the general
economic position and of its direct effects on social insurance,
statistical data rapidly become out of date and meaningless.
Again, an insured person may often be a member of two or
three main funds, as well as of one or more subsidiary funds ;
even civil servants, who are covered by a special State pension
scheme and are exempted from compulsory insurance, may be
members of subsidiary funds.

156

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Generally speaking, sickness insurance and unemployment
insurance are concerned only with wage earners, whereas
pension insurance covers also a considerable number of independent workers. Certain funds cover only workers employed
in a single undertaking, including its branches where any exist.
Other funds cater for a whole occupational category, either in
a single locality or in a district ; others, again, cover the whole
country. In principle, social insurance does not cover domestic
servants, nor does it apply to the rural population : agricultural
workers and small farmers do not enjoy the protection of social
security measures. The affiliation of wage earners to I.K.A.
for the purpose of sickness and pension insurance, and to the
Unemployment Insurance Fund, is being carried out in stages,
as provided for by law. The legislature has seen and has rightly
avoided the difficulties which would have arisen if any attempt
had been made to put the social insurance system into force
for the whole country at the same time. The 1934 Social
Insurance Act laid down the principle of exemption from
compulsory insurance of wage earners not resident in an " insurance centre ", i.e., a locality or group of localities which
fulfil certain conditions laid down in the regulations, with a
view to the efficient working of social insurance services. The
1945 Act on unemployment insurance for wage earners in
industrial undertakings covers all wage earners in industrial
undertakings in the province (nomos) of Attica. The
provisions of the Act have been progressively extended and
continue to be applied by stages to other districts of the country
and to other categories of wage earners.
In many cases, the operation of social insurance is limited
not by legal provisions but by administrative difficulties. Thus,
the Fund for Artisans and Small Traders finds it impossible to
collect the contributions of more than a third of the persons
who are compulsorily insured with it.
Generally speaking, institutions whose activities cover
the whole country have regional and local offices and branches
throughout the country. I.K.A. has regional offices in Athens,
Piraeus, Salónica, Patras, Volo, Kalamata, Kavalla, Jannina,
Canea and Heraklion. In addition, local offices may be attached
to a regional office. The branch establishments of the Unemployment Insurance Fund are as follows: Athens-Piraeus, Karlovassi
(Samos), Volo, Patras, Salónica, Edessa, Verria, Naoussa,
Mytilene, Kavalla, Chios, Pyrgos, Kalamata, Larissa, Hera-

SOCIAL

INSURANCE

157

klion, Trikkala, Chalkis, Syra, Canea, Xanthi, Serres. In
seven other towns branches are beginning to work. The
regional offices of I.K.A. and the branches of the Unemployment
Insurance Fund do practically all the work in their respective
districts. The branches of other funds, as, for example, those
of the Tobacco Workers' Fund or those of the Fund for Artisans
and Small Traders, have more limited functions.
Benefits
Greek social insurance guarantees insured persons and the
members of their family benefits in cash in the event of loss of
earning power and, in addition, medical care. The conditions
and amount of benefit are fixed by a considerable number of
Acts, administrative regulations, ministerial decisions and rules.
These provisions not only vary as between one fund and another,
but have also varied at different times. The peculiarly difficult
situation with which the country had to cope during the occupation and also in the post-war period—in particular, inflation
and economic instability—have necessitated rapid adjustments
in the system in order to adapt it to circumstances.
Industrial accidents and occupational diseases are covered
by special provisions included either in the sickness branch or
in the pensions branch, since there is no special branch for
occupational risks. Act No. 6298 of 1934 introduced special
advantages and privileges in the case of occupational risks,
while at the same time exempting employers from the liabilities
imposed upon them by the Royal Decree of 24 July 1920 on
compensation for industrial accidents, in all cases where the
victim is a member of an insurance fund.
National legislation provides for a special system of insurance
against tuberculosis. According to the special Act of 19
November 1935 J, - a " tuberculosis insurance organisation "
was to be set up, membership of which was to be compulsory
not only for wage earners covered by pension insurance or
sickness insurance, but also for independent workers covered
by pension insurance. This Act has not been put into force.
Benefits in kind and in cash in the event of tuberculosis are
provided by the sickness insurance funds or the pension insurance funds and, in particular, by I.K.A.
1

Cf. L.S., 1935, Gr. 10.

158

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Figures for the financial year 1946 in respect of 101 insurance
funds under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour show the
comparative financial importance of the three branches of
insurance. Although these figures do not cover all funds,
they give a fairly faithful general picture (I.K.A. is included).
In 1946 expenses amounted to 81,103 million drachmae, of
which 69,956 million drachmae came under the head of benefits,
divided as follows :
37,976 million for pensions (54.3 per cent.) ;
25,968 million for sickness (37.1 per cent.) ;
6,012 million for unemployment (8.6 per cent.).
SICKNESS INSURANCE

Sickness insurance is carried by a number of funds, the
most important of which is I.K.A. There are about ten funds
for railway workers, ten more for miners, several funds for
bank employees or for employees in other undertakings, and
finally funds for various occupational categories as, for example,
tobacco workers, bakery workers and flourmill workers. According to the latest census of the membership of I.K.A., the organisation covered on 26 February 1946 a total of 225,000 contributing members, of whom 90.5 per cent, were insured in both
branches, 9 per cent, in the sickness branch only and 0.5 per
cent, in the pensions branch only. I.K.A. covers the majority
of insured persons in the case of sickness. Persons pensioned
under I.K.A. receive benefits in kind in the event of sickness
in return for a contribution of 5 per cent, of their pension.
Apart from contributing members and the members of their
family, there are other categories of persons entitled to benefits
who pay no contribution. These are, on the one hand, unemployed persons in receipt of an unemployment allowance, in
respect of whom the days for which unemployment benefit is paid
are counted as working days for the purposes of sickness insurance and pension insurance ; and, on the other hand, the civil
servants, retired civil servants and members of their families
for whom I.K.A. is compelled, under Act No. 95 of 1943, to
provide medical treatment free of charge.
A qualifying period for sickness benefits is required in the
majority of the funds. In I.K.A. new members are not entitled
to benefits until six months after joining the fund ; thereafter
the qualifying condition is the performance of at least 50 days'

SOCIAL INSURANCE

159

work in the course of the 12 months preceding the onset of
sickness. Insured women must fulfil the additional condition
of having done at least 200 days' work in the course of the
two previous years, in order to qualify for benefits in kind
in the event of maternity. In the case of industrial accidents and
occupational diseases no qualifying period is required for benefits.
The benefits in kind supplied by I.K.A. throughout the
whole duration of an illness are medical treatment, medical
supplies and ordinary therapeutic treatment.
In the event of maternity, apart from consultations with
doctors and midwives in dispensaries and the supply of the
necessary medicaments, a lump sum (at present, 100,000
drachmae) is given to cover the expenses of confinement.
I.K.A. is authorised by law to require the beneficiary to
pay a share of medical expenses up to 20 per cent, of the whole
(except in the case of industrial accidents). In practice I.K.A.
requires the beneficiary to pay a share of 20 per cent, of the
cost of medical supplies, but all other treatment is given free.
Insured persons, but not members of their family, are entitled
to hospital treatment and to free transport. I.K.A. also grants
insured persons supplementary assistance, such as treatment
in sanatoria or asylums, a stay in a thermal or health resort
and the supply of special surgical and therapeutic appliances.
Medical treatment is given either at the dispensary or at
the home of the recipient. I.K.A. has opened dispensaries
wherever possible and, as a general rule, a patient who is not
actually bedridden is required to attend the dispensary. Doctors
receive patients in their own consulting rooms only when there
is no dispensary available. The patient is entitled to choose
the dispensary if there is more than one in the district, for
example, in Athens there are 12, in Piraeus 5, and in Salónica 4.
He is also entitled, so far as possible, to choose his doctor at
the dispensary. Medical treatment in the home is given by
other doctors who are specially engaged by I.K.A., and the
patient may choose one of these I.K.A. doctors in his particular
district. In cases requiring first aid, the patient can approach
the nearest doctor whether or not he is a doctor engaged by
I.K.A. In October 1947 there were 765 doctors working for
I.K.A., of whom 615 worked in dispensaries and 150 made
house visits. Of these doctors, 462 were specialists, all of whom
worked in the dispensaries. Doctors in dispensaries receive a
fixed monthly salary. Visiting doctors are paid monthly on the

160

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

basis of the number of visits. Supervision of medical treatment,
whether in the home or in the dispensary, is carried out by
supervisory doctors who are employees of I.K.A. and who,
unlike the doctors they supervise, are not allowed to practise
privately.
Medicaments are supplied to the patient as a rule by private
chemists, except for a few which are delivered direct to the
dispensary. The patient pays his 20 per cent, contribution
to the cost direct to the chemist.
Hospital treatment of insured persons is undertaken in
public hospitals or in private clinics on the basis of contracts
made by I.K.A. The cost per person of one day of hospital
treatment in October 1947 in Athens was between 23,000 and
25,000 drachmae. The district office of Athens alone owns three
small clinics. I.K.A. owns no sanatorium or asylum, so that it has
to rely upon other establishments, some of which are profit-making.
Benefits in cash include daily allowances in the event of
incapacity for work, allowances for pregnancy, maternity and
nursing, and funeral benefit. These benefits are granted to
insured persons only, and not to the members of their family.
The payment of daily sickness benefit begins on the sixth day
of incapacity for work and continues for a maximum period
of 180 days. If the incapacity was due to an accident, the
waiting period is reduced to three days and the period of coverage extended to 750 days. Allowances for pregnancy and
maternity benefits are paid during the six weeks preceding and
six weeks following the confinement, provided that the insured
person refrains from working. The nursing allowance is paid
for 60 days following the cessation of the confinement allowance
on condition that the child is still alive.
The daily allowance in the case of sickness and the allowance
for pregnancy, maternity and nursing is fixed at 60 per cent.
of the average wage, as shown in table XIII.
Insured persons are divided into the classes shown in the
said table according to their average daily wage reckoned
on the last 20 working days. In calculating the average wage,
however, account is taken only of the official wage, which is
much lower than the wage actually paid 1 , and the result is that
skilled workers, for example, receive a daily sickness allowance
of barely 20 per cent, of their actual earnings. Daily allow1

Cf. Chapter II, p. 41.

SOCIAL

TABLE X I I I .

161*

INSURANCE

AVERAGE WAGES AND DAILY ALLOWANCES

(in drachmae)
Daily wage

Up to 2,500
2,501-3,500
3,501-4,500
4,501-5,500
5,501-6,500
6,501 and over

Average wage

Daily sickness
allowance

2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000

1,200
1,800
2,400
3,000
3,600
4,200

anees are increased by 20 per cent, when the incapacity is
due to an accident. Days for which sickness or accident benefit
is paid are counted as days of insurance. This applies also as
regards the qualifying period required for pension insurance,
but only up to a maximum of 350 days. In return for these
rights, the daily allowance is subject to a 5 per cent, reduction.
In the event of tuberculosis there are special provisions which
will be considered later.
Funeral expenses are granted, without reference to the wage
of the deceased, at a flat rate which at present is 100,000
drachmae.
In the other sickness insurance funds, benefits vary greatly.
The conditions of benefit include a qualifying period which
varies from two to six months and a contribution period of
30 to 60 days. In most cases members of the family are entitled
to medical care, but there are funds which exclude them.
Some funds grant only medical treatment, but most of
them also guarantee medical supplies and hospital treatment.
Only about a third of the funds give supplementary assistance
to the patient, such as treatment in a sanatorium or asylum.
The maximum period of medical care is often unlimited, but
some funds impose a limit of between three and four months.
Only three funds grant free transport. The organisation of
medical treatment varies as between one fund and another,
but the most frequent system is by means of doctors engaged
by the fund. In the Tobacco Workers' Fund, which is the
most important after I.K.A., and in the Bakery Workers'
Fund, medical assistance is organised on the same basis as in
I.K.A. Most funds give free medical treatment on the payment
of a small contribution by the insured person when the patient
is a member of the family or in the case of house visits by

«162

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

the doctor. Insured persons are frequently required to contribute
towards other expenses. The share borne by the beneficiary
varies between 20 and 50 per cent, from one fund to another,
and according to whether medical supplies, hospital or sanatorium treatment, provision of appliances, etc., is concerned.
For maternity several funds grant the same benefits as I.K.A. ;
others grant only a lump sum in cash, and certain others grant
no benefit at all.
All funds do not give the benefits in cash, but the majority
of them, including the most important, grant daily allowances
for a period varying between 12 and 26 weeks. Waiting periods
vary from two to five days, and sometimes no waiting period
at all is imposed. The rate of daily allowance varies between
30 and 60 per cent, of the wage, and in certain funds it is
increased when the patient has family responsibilities. Several
funds grant a lump-sum payment for funeral expenses.
As a result of this variety in the organisation of sickness
insurance, it follows naturally that the financial burden of
the various benefits differs greatly from one fund to another.
It depends to a large extent inter alia on the composition of the
membership. Furthermore, even in a single fund, the proportion
of expenses allowed for each category of benefit is liable to rapid
change, as shown in tables XIV and XV.

TABLE XIV.

SICKNESS INSURANCE B E N E F I T S OF I . K . A .
1946

January-July 1947

Thousand
drachmae

Percentage
of total
benefits

Thousand
drachmae

Percentage
of total
benefits

Medical care
Pharmaceutical expenses .
Hospital treatment
. . .
Other benefits in kind . .

3,509,282
2,073,537
4,715,590
1,532,817

15.3
9.0
20.6
6.7

3,108,460
2,545,384
4,325,657
1,651,944

16.2
13.2
22.5
8.6

Total benefits in kind . .

11,831,226

51.6

11,631,445

60.5

Sickness allowances. . . .
Maternity benefits . . . .

8,529,601
2,460,818
87,853

37.2
10.8
0.4

5,823,077
1,698,922
63,191

30.3
8.9
0.3

Total benefits in cash . .

11,078,272

48.4

7,585,190

39.5

22,909,498

100.0

19,216,635

100.0

Benefits

Total, all benefits

. . . .

SOCIAL

TABLE XV.

163

INSURANCE

SICKNESS INSURANCE B E N E F I T S , IN

1946,

OF THE TOBACCO W O R K E R S ' FUND AND OF EIGHT OTHER FUNDS
Tobacco Workers'
Fund
Benefits
Thousand
drachmae

Percentage

Eight sickness
insurance funds
Thousand
drachmae

Percentage

Medical care
Pharmaceutical expenses .
Hospital t r e a t m e n t . . . .
Other benefits in kind . . .

526,750
159,614
286,100
109,417

31.7
9.6
17.3
6.6

374,578
191.928
111,420
245,227

27.8
14.2
8.3
18.2

Total benefits in kind . .

1,081,881

65.2

923,153

68.5

342,706
223,700
11,335

20.6
13.5
0.8

364,510
47,694
12,207

27.1
3.5
0.9

577,741

34.8

424,411

31.5

1,659,622

100.0

1,347,564

100.0

Maternity benefits
Total benefits in cash . .
Total, all benefits

. . . .

PENSION

INSURANCE

Insurance against invalidity, old age and death is the
most widely dispersed form of insurance in Greece. There are
more than 60 main funds, all of which grant pensions, while
some, in addition, grant a lump sum on retirement or death.
The number of subsidiary funds is even greater than the number
of main funds, but about a third of the subsidiary funds grant
only lump sums in cases of retirement or cessation of work or
invalidity, so that they are welfare organisations rather than
social insurance institutions properly so-called.
Among the main funds which are under the supervision of
the Ministry of Labour, only six have a membership of over
10,000. Three of them insure wage earners, namely, I.K.A.,
the Tobacco Workers' Fund and the Miners' Fund. Two others
insure independent workers, namely, the Artisans' and Small
Traders' Fund and the Commercial Workers' Fund. Finally,
there is a mixed fund, that of the chauffeurs.
Of 44 other main funds, also under the supervision of the
Ministry of Labour and set up exclusively for wage earners,
15 have more than a thousand members, 21 less than a thousand
but more than a hundred, and eight less than a hundred. The

164

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

smallest is the Indigent Women's Workroom Fund, which has
seven members and eight beneficiaries. Other main funds are
under the supervision of ministries other than the Ministry of
Labour, the principal ones being those which insure seamen,
doctors and chemists, barristers, solicitors, the clergy of the
Orthodox Church, mechanics and public works contractors.
The most important subsidiary fund is that of the textile
workers, which grants pensions. Mention may also be made of
the Civil Servants' Provident Fund, although it grants only
lump sums.
Each fund works independently of the others. When a
member transfers from a main fund to another fund there is
no guarantee of the maintenance of rights. Act No. 694 of
1947 made it compulsory, in the event of such transfer, to
arrange also a transfer of capital. This provision has not been
applied, however, so that when a member of one fund transfers
to another fund he may suffer loss or, on the contrary, in certain
cases enjoy benefits to which he was not entitled. Furthermore,
as the result of insured persons being allowed to belong to
more than one fund, there are many cases of accumulation of
pensions.
The operational figures given below are not complete and
refer only to those funds concerning which the Mission was
able to collect adequate information.
As regards funds under the supervision of the Ministry of
Labour, total benefits in 1946 amounted to 37,976 million
drachmae, made up as follows :
7,763 million for I.K.A. (20.4 per cent.) ;
26,122 million for other main funds (68.8 per cent.) ;
4,091 million for subsidiary funds (10.8 per cent.).
As regards funds which are under the supervision of ministries
other than the Ministry of Labour, it has been possible to secure
information about five institutions only, and these do not
include the fund which is numerically the most important,
namely, the Seamen's Fund. Moreover, the results shown do
not always refer to a financial period coinciding with the civil
year. Total benefits for financial periods coinciding as nearly
as possible with the civil year 1946, for the five funds in question,
amount to 16,961 million drachmae.
It is impossible to make an exact estimate of the numbers
insured. At the end of 1946 the number of wage earners

SOCIAL

INSURANCE

165

affiliated and paying contributions to the main funds may be
estimated at 370,000—including seamen—and the number of
independent workers at 110,000.
The number of pensions granted at the end of 1946 exceeded
62,000. More than three quarters of these pensions were paid
to wage earners. According to Ministry of Labour figures,
the number of pensions currently paid by I.K.A. on 31 December
1946 amounted to 11,778.
Provisions concerning I.K.A. were laid down by Act No. 6298
of 1934 and in principle have not undergone any important
change, except, of course, as regards the amount of benefits.
Benefits include, on the one hand, invalidity, old-age and survivors' pensions and, on the other hand, lump-sum compensation. The grant of a pension is conditional on the completion
of a qualifying period of 750 working days, of which at least
300 must have been accomplished in the course of the previous
three years. The qualifying period is reduced to 300 working
days, of which at least 200 must have been accomplished in
the three previous years, in the case of a non-occupational
accident. No qualifying period is required in the case of an
industrial accident or occupational disease.
On the death or invalidity of a member who has not completed the qualifying period, lump-sum compensation is granted
equal to one year's pension, on condition that the member has
completed 300 working days, of which 200 at least must have
been in the course of the previous three years, or in the case of
an accident (non-occupational).
An invalidity pension is granted to persons who, as a result
of illness, injury or bodily or mental infirmity, are unable to
earn, in any employment suited to their strength, qualifications,
training and customary occupation, more than one third of the
wage. The old-age pension is given at 65 years for men and
at 60 years for women, on condition that the beneficiary does
not continue to earn more than one half the normal wage.
In case of death, pensions are granted to widows, orphans and
ascendants in the first degree. The widow's pension is granted
unconditionally except in the case of the marriage being very
recent. A widower is entitled to a pension if he is indigent
and disabled, and was supported by his wife, if his wife was an
insured person or pensioner. Orphans' pensions are granted
to legitimate or adopted children, and to illegitimate children
in the case of the decease of their mother, provided the mother

166

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

was insured or a pensioner. Under certain conditions, they are
granted to grandchildren and to stepchildren. The orphans'
pension is granted until the age of 16 years, but it may be
prolonged in the case of students or invalid children. The
father and mother are entitled to a survivor's pension, if previously supported by the deceased insured person, if they lived
with him, and also on condition that the total of pensions to
other survivors does not exceed the amount of the deceased
person's pension if there is a widow (or a widower), or does
not exceed 60 per cent, of the total pension of the deceased
person if there is no widow.
The annual invalidity or old-age pension before the war
was composed of a basic amount of 3,000 drachmae and of
increments depending on the number of days' work accomplished
in the various wage classes. Insured persons were divided
into eight wage classes. For an insured person who had worked
300 days in the year the amount of the pension was as follows :
TABLE X V I .

AMOUNT OF P E N S I O N S

Daily -wage
(drachmae)
Wage
class

Annual pension (drachmae)
after
3

from

10

20

30

j

40

to
y e a r s ' insurance (1 year =. 300 d a y s ' work)

I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII

30
60
90
130
170
210
250

29
59
89
129
169
209
249

3,125 3,450 3,900 4,350 4,800
3,450 4,500 6,000 7,500 9,000
3,810 5,700 8,400 11,100 13,800
4,305 7,350 11,700 16,050 20,400
4,890 9,300 15,600 21,900 28,200
5,565 11,550 20,100 28,650 37,200
6,330 14,100 25,200 36,300 47,400
7,320 17,400 31,800' 46,200 60,600

Fixed as a percentage of the average wage, the invalidity or
old-age pension ranged from 9 per cent, in class VIII after three
years' insurance, to 107 per cent, in class I after forty years
of insurance. The annual amount of the invalidity pension
could not exceed the wage of the insured person during the last
twelve months of work. In the event of an industrial accident
or an occupational disease, the pension could not be less than
40 per cent, of the most recent wage. The amount of the pension
was increased by 50 per cent, when the beneficiary was totally

SOCIAL

167

INSURANCE

disabled and when he permanently needed the assistance of a
third person.
The amounts of survivors' pensions were fixed at certain
percentages of the invalidity pension : in the case of a widow's
or widower's pension at 40 per cent., in the case of the pension
of an orphan of one parent at 20 per cent., and of an orphan
of both parents at 40 per cent. The total pension granted to
widow and children combined was not to exceed the invalidity
pension. The total orphans' pensions when no widow's pension
was granted could not exceed 60 per cent, of the invalidity
pension. The amount of pension for father and mother was
20 per cent., but the total of all survivors' pensions was
not to exceed 100 per cent, (including widow's pension) or
60 per cent, (not including widow's pension) of the invalidity
pension.
The original Act provides for the possibility of adapting
wage classes to new conditions by means of a decision of the
Cabinet in the event of any important variation in the costof-living index. It also provides for adjusting the actual amount
of pensions, including the amount of current pensions. In
1939, pensioners received an additional pecuniary grant on the
TABLE XVII.

From

1 J u n e 1942
1 August 1942
1 October 1943
1 J u n e 1944
1 J u l y 1944
1 August 1944
21 September 1944

CHANGES IN AMOUNT OF PENSIONS
Former
administrative
district
of the capital

Other districts

(drachmae)

(drachmae)

2,500
4,500
57,000
210,000
420,000
840,000
2,500,000
5,600,000
40,000,000
600,000,000
3,000,000,000

2,000
4,000
50,000
150,000
300,000
600,000
1,800,000
3,600,000
28,800,000
432,000,000
2,160,000,000

occasion of the festivals of Easter and Christmas. This system
was completely shattered by the inflation consequent on the
war and the occupation. Attempts have since been made, by
a series of decrees, to adapt the rates of pension to the situation.

168

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Table XVII gives an idea of the changes in the amount of pensions below 1,000 drachmae.
After the liberation and the currency reform of 11 November
1944, pensions were readjusted. At the moment, the invalidity or
old-age pension is calculated as follows : the amount is first
calculated in " pre-war drachmae ", according to the provisions
of the original Act, on the basis of wages actually received
before 1 May 1941 and, for later periods, on the basis of the
wage which the insured person was receiving on 1 May 1941 or
would have been receiving at that date. The preliminary
amount thus calculated is then adjusted to the existing
situation on a scale fixed by a joint decision of the Ministers
of Labour and Finance, under Act No. 19 of 1941. The scale
in force since 1 January 1947 is as follows :
Monthly pension
in pre-war draclunae

Up to
501—
1,001—
1,501—
2,001—
2,501—

Pension paid since
1 January 1947

500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000

57,000
63,000
69,000
88,000
100,000
107,000

11,001—11,500
11,501—12,000
12,001 and over

263,000
270,000
275,000

The total pension granted to the survivors of a deceased
insured person is fixed at a certain percentage of the invalidity
pension which the deceased was receiving or would have received.
This percentage varied between 60 and 100 per cent, according
to the number of beneficiaries.
From 1 February 1947, an extra supplementary payment of
50,000 drachmae has been granted monthly to each pensioner,
under a special decision which is taken each month. A beneficiary may not receive more than one of these supplementary
grants. 1
When the invalidity is due to an industrial accident or
an occupational disease, a special allowance is granted, the
1
Since 1 December 1947 a new scale has been in operation and
the extra supplement has been abolished. The new scale begins at
125,000 drachmae (for pre-war pensions of under 500 drachmae) and
goes up to 480,000 drachmae (for pre-war pensions of over 12,000
drachmae). In certain circumstances funds will be enabled to make
additional payments in respect of the members of the beneficiary's
family.

SOCIAL

169

INSURANCE

amount of which varies according to the degree of invalidity.
For a degree of invalidity of 66 to 84 per cent, the monthly
allowance is 30,000 drachmae ; for 85 to 99 per cent. 60,000
drachmae ; and for 100 per cent. 100,000 drachmae.
In 1940, war victims were put on the same footing as victims
of industrial accidents, subject only to the condition that the
person concerned should have been insured for at least forty
days. For the purposes of this calculation, social insurance
pensions were reduced by the amount of State pensions granted
to war victims. This latter clause was repealed in 1943.
Special supplementary grants are made in the case of tuberculosis, as will be shown later.
As a result, on the one hand, of the increase in the number
of pensioners and, on the other hand, of the considerable
increase in the amount of pensions, the total of benefits granted
shows a very great advance. In 1946, total benefits amounted
to 7,769 million drachmae. It is certain that the figure for 1947
will prove to be more than double this amount, as is shown by
the sums paid during the first seven months of 1947, as follows :
Drachmae

Old-age pensions
Invalidity pensions
Survivors' pensions
Lump-sum compensation

2,031,286,008
3,016,457,659
4,550,564,165
78,920,620

In other funds, the conditions for the grant of benefits
are not always fixed by special Acts, since in the majority of
cases they are established either by ministerial decisions or by
the rules of the funds themselves.
The qualifying period varies not only from one fund to
another, but also within the same fund, according to the nature
of the pension and even according to the class of the insured
person. For old-age pensions the period varies between three
and thirty years. For invalidity pensions certain funds require
no qualifying period ; in others, the period varies and may be
as long as twenty years. For survivors' pensions, the qualifying
period varies between two and fifteen years. The qualifying
period for the granting of lump-sum compensation also varies
considerably. The duration of the qualifying period would
seem to be fixed in the various funds in a somewhat arbitrary
manner, and not to be linked with a greater or less degree of
hardship in the work of the insured persons : thus, a qualifying
period of thirty years' service is required for the grant of the

170

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

old-age pension in the Miners' Fund. The majority of funds
allow members to redeem their rights for periods of service
previous to their entry into the fund by special payments.
The conditions for these payments vary greatly as between the
various funds.
The age for granting the old-age pension is fixed in the
majority of funds at 60 years, but many funds grant the
pension before that age. The fund for representatives and
employees of workers' and other occupational organisations
grants a pension to certain categories of its members at 40
years of age, after the completion of three or five years of
service.
In the event of the death of the insured person, the heirs
include, in all funds, the widow and legitimate or legitimised
children. The widow's pension is given unconditionally, subject
to a minimum duration of the marriage. Most funds grant
pensions to the father and the mother of the member, and
some grant pensions to illegitimate children. Many funds also
recognise other assigns, such as the widower, grandchildren,
brothers and sisters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and grandparents. In almost all cases, the grant of benefits to such
assigns is subject to various conditions, e.g., cohabitation, the
fact of having been dependent on the deceased, or the fact that
there is no widow's or orphan's pension involved.
The age limit up to which orphans' pensions are granted
varies as between funds, from 15 to 30 years. It may differ
within the same fund according to the sex of the orphan.
In certain cases, a female orphan may be entitled -to the pension
without any age limit so long as she remains unmarried.
Pensions are calculated on very different systems, among
which two main groups can be distinguished : (a) the pension
is composed of a fixed sum and of an increment dependent on
the duration of the insurance and on the wages of the insured
person ; (b) the pension is fixed at a percentage of the most
recent wage (or of the average wage calculated over a short
period preceding the grant of the pension), such percentage
being dependent on the duration of the insurance. Generally
speaking, pensions are calculated according to provisions laid
down before the inflation and are then adjusted to existing
currency conditions by means of the scale adopted for the
purpose of I.K.A. pensions. The extraordinary supplementary
grant of 50,000 drachmae per month mentioned in the case of

SOCIAL

171

INSURANCE

I.K.A. applies also to pensioners of other funds. The amount
of the lump sums varies according to the duration of insurance
and to the wage of the insured persons, but in certain funds it
is subject to a maximum or minimum limit.
TUBERCULOSIS

BENEFITS

In Greece, tuberculosis has always been the most serious
social disease. According to the " Statistics of Causes of
Death ", published by the Ministry of National Economy, the
percentage of deaths from tuberculosis in 1933 and in 1934
was as follows :
TABLE

XVIII.

PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS
IN 1933 AND 1934

Form of tuberculosis

Other
Total

FROM

TUBERCULOSIS

1933
j
1934
Coun- Towns 1 State Coun- Towns
try
try

State

4.8
1.1

12.6
3.3

7.2
1.8

5.3
1.4

12.2
3.1

7.7
2.0

5.9

15.9

9.0

6.7

15.3

9.7

Before the war, the total number of cases of tuberculosis
in the country was estimated at between 90,000 and 100,000.
During the war and particularly during the occupation, the
situation became really tragic. After the end of the war, the
Rizarion Radiographic Centre at Athens examined 27,460
men and 6,511 women, all apparently healthy, taken from
different occupational categories of the urban population.
This examination showed 1,091 clinically significant cases,
of whom 900 were men and 191 women, or 3.28 per cent.
for the men and 2.93 per cent, for the women. Of the 1,091
cases observed, 758 required medical treatment and 333 had
to be kept under observation. The cases examined were
divided into 607 slight, 416 moderately advanced and 686
far advanced.
Thus the social insurance funds, and I.K.A. in particular,
were faced with a serious situation. In the campaign against
tuberculosis, the legislature appealed to the social insurance
institutions. Under a Ministerial Decree of 1943, all persons

172

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

suffering from tuberculosis are entitled to all the benefits, in
kind and in cash, of sickness insurance, provided that they have
completed at least 250 days' work since entering insurance.
In the case of I.K.A., the same advantages are granted to
insured persons who have already received the lump-sum compensation paid as pension insurance. In the event of tuberculosis, the duration of the daily allowance was at first extended
to 360 days, and then so prolonged that in practice it became
unlimited. Nevertheless, the measures at present in force were
officially prescribed only until 31 December 1947.
In the event of tuberculosis, the daily sickness allowance
is increased by 20 per cent, so that it becomes 72 per cent.
of the basic wage. In addition, the tuberculous patient receives
a grant of 1,300 drachmae per day to take the place of the food
allowance which was distributed by I.K.A. during the occupation. All insured persons suffering from tuberculosis are
entitled to medical and supplementary assistance. The maximum duration of hospital treatment is prolonged in their case
to two years, and to three years in the case of bone tuberculosis.
Treatment in sanatoria is infrequent, owing to the lack of
beds and of financial resources. In April 1947, I.K.A. was
treating 200 tuberculous patients in sanatoria or in other
institutions.
The conditions for granting the invalidity pension do not
differ if the invalidity is due to tuberculosis. The amount of the
pension, however, is increased by a monthly sum, which averages
80,000 drachmae. In the case of I.K.A., this sum is fixed at
69,000 drachmae, but in addition the pensioner receives 39,000
drachmae per month, which corresponds to the financial assistance of 1,300 drachmae per day granted under the sickness
insurance scheme.1
An annual lump sum is granted to each tuberculous person in
receipt of a pension, for the purpose of taking an open-air
cure. In 1945, this sum ranged between 120,000 and 200,000
drachmae.
According to estimates made by the Ministry of Labour
for April 1947, the number of tuberculous patients in receipt

1

According to a decision of the Minister of Labour (December 1947)
the funds are authorised to pay tuberculous pensioners a supplement
varying with their economic situation, but not exceeding 100,000
drachmae per month.

SOCIAL INSURANCE

173

of sickness insurance benefits was 5,000 (of whom 4,800 were
beneficiaries of I.K.A.). The monthly total expenditure was
535 million drachmae (420 million drachmae for I.K.A.) in
sickness insurance. In pension insurance there were 4,000
tuberculous invalids, of whom 650 were in I.K.A. and 1,050 in
the Tobacco Workers' Fund. The comparatively small number
of tuberculous cases receiving I.K.A. pensions is explained by
the fact that many of them have not completed the qualifying
period for a pension and consequently continue to receive
sickness insurance benefits.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

Unemployment insurance covers wage earners in industrial,
mining and commercial undertakings, those employed by
artisans or small traders, and those in undertakings belonging
to limited liability companies and to public utility undertakings.
It does not cover wage earners in agricultural, forestry or
fishing undertakings, or bank employees.
There is far less diversity in this branch of insurance than
in the other two. Act No. 118 of 1945 1 introduced the system
of unemployment insurance and set up the Unemployment
Insurance Fund. The Legislative Decree of 8 May 1946 permitted the transfer to the Unemployment Insurance Fund of
the unemployment funds already existing in other institutions. Hence, the unemployment branches of the fund for
flourmill workers and wage earners in macaroni factories and
of the fund for cinematograph undertakings were transferred
to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and arrangements are
being made for the transference of the unemployment branches
of other funds. Acts Nos. 817 and 947 of 1946 extended the
application of Act No. 118 of 1945 to metal mines and
lignite workings ; but for the wage earners in these undertakings
unemployment insurance was entrusted to the Miners' Fund.
Among other occupational categories not covered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund are tobacco workers (i.e., workers
handling leaf tobacco), who, for the purpose of unemployment
insurance, are affiliated to their own institution, the Tobacco
Workers' Fund. Similarly, the staff of the daily and periodical
1

Cf. L.S., 1945, Gr. 1.

174

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

press is insured against unemployment with three small funds
(two at Athens and one at Salónica). For seamen, there is a
special fund under the control of the Ministry of the Mercantile
Marine, but this is a welfare fund rather than an insurance
institution.
Unemployment allowances granted under Act No. 118 of
1945 are paid, in the case of workers, from the sixth day following the unemployed person's notification to the Fund and, in
the case of salaried employees, from the eleventh day. To
qualify for these allowances unemployed persons must fulfil
one or other of the following conditions :
(a) they must have worked in the undertakings covered by
insurance on the date of the promulgation of the Act (13 February 1945);
(b) they must have completed at least 270 days' work in
the undertakings covered by insurance after the entry into
force of the Act ; or
(c) they must have completed at least 270 days' work
between 1 January 1940 and the entry into force of the Act
in the undertakings covered by insurance, even though no
labour contract bound the insured person to the undertaking
at the date of the entry into force of the Act. These unemployed
persons, however, were required to register with the Unemployment Insurance Fund within a time limit of sixty days from
the entry into force of the Act. This time limit might be
prolonged by one month by decision of the Minister of Labour,
and under Act No. 564 of 1945, the Minister of Labour was
empowered to grant a further extension of twenty days for
registration.
The original Act placed no limit on the duration of the
unemployment allowance. The Legislative Decree of 8 May
1946 introduced a maximum of nine months, which was reduced
to three months in certain exceptional cases. The Minister of
Labour is, however, authorised to double these maximum
periods. In the case of unemployed persons who were drawing
the allowance before the maximum was introduced, the allowance is considered to have begun on 1 May 1946.
The amount of allowances is fixed at a percentage of the
minimum daily wage in the job in question in the case of a

SOCIAL

INSURANCE

175

wage earner, and at a percentage of the minimum monthly
salary in the case of a salaried employee. The rates are as
follows :
50 per cent, for salaried employees in undertakings covered
by insurance at the time of the promulgation of the Act
(condition (a) above) ;
40 per cent, for other salaried employees (conditions (b)
and (c)) ;
40 per cent, for wage earners employed in undertakings covered
by insurance at the date of the promulgation of the Act
(condition (a)) ; and
30 per cent, for other wage earners (conditions (b) and (c)).
By decision of the Minister of Labour, these percentages
may be replaced by flat-rate payments fixed for a category of
wage earners taken as a whole. Days for which unemployment
allowance is granted are taken into account for the purposes
of pension insurance and sickness insurance by the fund or
funds of which the insured person is a member, without any
corresponding contribution either by the insured person or
by the Unemployment Insurance Fund. The receipt of a
pension or of daily sickness benefit entails suspension of the
unemployment allowance except in the case of allowances for
pregnancy, maternity or nursing. If, however, the unemployment allowance is the higher of the two, the insured person
receives the balance.
Insured persons are entitled to unemployment benefits
only if they have left their work involuntarily. Employers
are required to declare in writing, to the Unemployment
Insurance Fund, and to the employment office of their district,
any termination of a contract of employment, under penalty
of such termination being declared null and void. When the
employment office is unable to find suitable employment for
the insured person whose contract has been terminated, the
Unemployment Insurance Fund is required to pay unemployment allowance. An unemployed person may refuse employment offered to him by the employment office only if such
employment is not in accordance with his training or with his
physical and intellectual qualifications, or when, in view of
his family circumstances, it would involve an impracticable
removal. Allowances are suspended in the event of the resump-

176

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

tion of work (independent or wage-paid or salaried) but are
resumed if such work comes to an end.
At least 50 per cent, of unemployed persons placed by the
employment offices must be chosen from beneficiaries of the
Unemployment Insurance Fund.
The above provisions apply not only to the Unemployment
Insurance Fund but also to the unemployment branch of the
Miners' Fund. Conditions for the grant of unemployment
allowances, and the amount of such allowances for insured
persons in other funds, vary considerably. In the Tobacco
Workers' Fund, an allowance of 40 per cent, of the wage is
paid on condition that the insured person has accomplished a
minimum period of work ; such period is fixed yearly, account
being taken of the level of employment in the various centres
where tobacco is handled. In the funds for press workers, the
allowances are also payable after a minimum duration of work ;
further, they are paid not only in the event of unemployment
but also in the event of wage reductions. The maximum
duration of unemployment allowances is from four to six months,
but this can be prolonged. There is also an unemployment
branch in the fund for marine agents and their employees.
The revenue of this branch is derived from a tax on goods
delivered in the ports, and benefits are paid not only to wage
earners but also to employers when out of work.
In 1946, total unemployment benefits reached the following
figures :
Drachmae

Unemployment Insurance Fund

Tobacco Workers' Fund
Press Funds
Compositors' Fund
Flourmill Workers' Fund (before transfer)
Total

4,501,885,000
. .

1,209,049,000
220,281,000
61,123,000
19,786,000

6,012,124,000

The number of beneficiaries of the Unemployment Insurance
Fund during 1947 was as shown in table XIX.
It should be noted that the number of beneficiaries will
show a decline from 1 November 1947, which date marks the
expiry of the maximum period of eighteen months in the case
of beneficiaries who were in receipt of allowances before 1 May
1946, since, as stated above, the maximum period is deemed to
have begun on 1 May 1946.

SOCIAL

TABLE

XIX.

NUMBER

OF BENEFICIARIES

INSURANCE DURING

At the end of

February
March. .
April . .
May. . .
June . .
July . .
August .
September

1,496
1,529
1,584
1,601
1,615
1,630
1,630
1,655

OF

UNEMPLOYMENT

1947

Athens - Piraeus
Em- I
Workers ployees I Total

5,748
5,762
5,911
5,889
5,867
5,921
5,972
5,958

177

INSURANCE

7,244
7,291
7,495
7,490
7,482
7,551
7,602
7,613

Other offices
Workers

1,539
1,661
1,680
1,997
1,969
2,038
1,099

p

i^

e s

Total

168 1,707
169 1,830
177 1,857
172 2,169
162 2,131
165 2,203
112 1,211

Resources
The greater part of the resources of Greek social insurance
is derived from the contributions paid by insured persons and
by employers. The amount of the contribution is determined
either as a percentage of the wage or as a fixed sum. Contributions are paid to social insurance institutions by the
employer in the case of a wage earner, and by the insured
person himself in the case of an independent worker or of a
person who continues to make payments to the insurance fund
on a voluntary basis. When part of the contribution is to be
paid by the insured person, such part is deducted from the
wage by the employer. The State takes no direct part in the
financing of social insurance. In certain cases, however, the State
has granted subsidies to funds which were in difficulties after
the war. On the other hand, many funds include among their
resources taxes or dues known as " social taxes ". These
taxes were introduced by several special Acts which, at the
same time, entrusted the collection of them to the insurance
funds concerned. In the Greek system the social taxes constitute that part of the resources of funds which is not derived
from the income of insured persons or employers, but which is
imposed on others, often on the population as a whole. These
taxes are collected not for the benefit of social insurance funds
in general, but for the benefit of insured persons who are members of funds which have the privilege of collecting them.

178

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

R A T E S OF CONTRIBUTION

The rates of contributions, and their distribution between
the employee and the employer, vary not only from one institution to another, but sometimes also within the same fund,
according to different criteria. It is impossible to give any
general rule, for in many cases contributions are fixed in so
arbitrary a manner that it is difficult to relate them either to
the nature of the benefits granted or to the economic situation
of the fund.
Thus, the Tobacco Workers' Fund collects a general contribution of 12 per cent, for the sickness, pension and unemployment branches and, on 31 December 1946, it showed a deficit
of 4,469 million drachmae. The A.S.O. Staff Fund (Raisin
Office) collects a contribution of 31.5 per cent, for the sickness
and pension branches, and its net assets on 31 December 1946
were 173 million drachmae. (The total number of its insured
members at the same date was 1 per cent, of the insured members
of the Tobacco Workers' Fund.) It might be supposed that
the differences in contributions arise from differences in the
financial system of the various funds, but under present conditions, when the reserves built up before 1945 have been practically wiped out by the inflation, it can hardly be argued that
the financial systems are in any way responsible for these
variations.
In I.K.A. contributions were fixed by the original Act at
4 per cent, for the sickness branch and 3.6 per cent, for the
pensions branch, these percentages being calculated on the
average wages of eight wage classes. The contributions were
payable as to four tenths by the workers and as to six
tenths by the employers. The original Act provided that the
contribution should be progressively increased in the pensions
branch, as follows : 4.8 per cent, of the wage from 1 January
1940 ; 6.6 per cent, from 1 January 1945 ; 7.6 per cent, from
1 January 1948; and 8.0 per cent, from 1 January 1951.
The object of this progressive increase in contributions
was to secure actuarial equilibrium according to the system
of average premium. The whole structure of the system
was destroyed by the war, the occupation and the resulting
inflation.
At the present time, contributions to I.K.A. are established
as follows : the worker pays 1 per cent, for sickness and 1 per

SOCIAL

179

INSURANCE

cent, for pensions ; the employer pays 5 per cent, for sickness
and 3 per cent, for pensions, making a total of 10 per cent.
Contributions have to be calculated as a percentage of
wages actually paid. It often happens that the employer
bases his calculations of the contribution not on actual wages
but on the wages fixed by the Minister of Labour. This is an
abuse which I.K.A. does its best to prevent, though it is often
difficult to do so.
Under Cabinet Decree No. 92 of 1946, in the case of persons
employed in public administrations, or of State wage employees
who are members of I.K.A., the share of the contribution chargeable to the employer is reduced from 8 to 3 per cent, without
any change in the benefits.
In the Unemployment Insurance Fund, contributions are
fixed at 10 per cent, of wages and are payable solely by the
employer. Nevertheless, the Minister of Labour is empowered
to reduce the percentage below 10. In practice, from 1 October
1947, contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Fund are
fixed as follows :
TABLE X X .

CONTRIBUTIONS TO T H E UNEMPLOYMENT

INSURANCE

FUND
Former
Districts
administrative of Macedonia
district
and Eastern
of the capital
Thrace

Undertakings

Other
districts

percentage

Commercial
Limited liability companies
Artisans and small traders

.

10
10
10
4
4

5
3
3
2
4

5
5
5
2
4

In addition to normal contributions, the employer is bound,
in the event of termination of the contract of employment of
any worker who was drawing an unemployment allowance
when engaged, to pay a contribution equal to one day's wage
for each six days' work, up to a maximum of 30 days' wages
for wage earners and two months' pay for salaried employees.
In table X X I are given a certain number of contribution
rates for various branches and various categories of funds.

180

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

TABLE X X I .

CONTRIBUTION RATES FOR VARIOUS BRANCHES
AND CATEGORIES OF FUNDS
Insured
person

Fund

Employer
percentage

Main funds : sickness
insurance :

and

pension

Fund of the staff of the Ionian Bank
Flourmill Workers' F u n d
Piraeus Dockers' Fund
A.S.O. Staff Fund
Pottery Workers' Fund
Evangelismos Hospital Fund . . .
Main pension
railwaymen :

insurance

funds

insurance

funds

insurance

6
4
5
4
5

6
5
10
5
5

5
4
3
4

6
4
3
5
12

for

National Bank, Mortgage Bank and
Bank of Greece
Bank of Athens
Popular Bank
Bank of Chios
Agricultural Bank
Other main pension
for wage earners :

7
8
6
21
4
3

for

Electric Railways
State Railways, Larissa Branch . .
Attica Railways
S.E.K. Railway (Macedonia-Thrace)
Pyrgos and Katakolon Railway . .
S.P.A.P. (Piraeus-Athens-Peloponnesus)
Thessaly Railways
Northern Greece Railways
. . . .
Franco-Hellenic Railways
Tramways and Electricity Works of
Salónica
Main pension
bank staffs :

7
6
6
0.5
4
3

5
6
4.5
6
8

10
7
4.5
6
8

funds

Staff of t h e Company for the administration of articles under monopoly
Staff of the Athens-Piraeus Electric
Company and of the Hellenic Electricity Co
Staff of t h e Athens Gas Company .
Staff of the Indigent Women's Workrooms
Staff of the Warehousing Company .
Staff of the Corinth Canal
. . . .

10
6
8

6
11

5
7
5

5
7
5

SOCIAL

181

INSURANCE

Insured
person

Employer

Total

percentage

Other main pension insurance
for wage earners (continued):

funds

Staff of the Hellenic Powder Mills
Company
Staff of the Chambers of Commerce
and Industry
Staff of the Athens newspapers . .
Staff of the Piraeus Gas Company .
Typesetters and wage earners in the
printing industry
Employees and editors of Salónica
newspapers
Newsvendors and wage earners in
newspaper distributing agencies
in Salónica
Staff of Dockers' Funds
Staff of the Greek Telephone Company
Staff of agricultural co-operatives .
Miners' Fund
Staff of " The National Insurance
Company "
Dockers of Kalamata
Subsidiary
pension
insurance
for wage earners :

6

6

12

6
5.5
6

6

12

12

18

6

12

1.5
5

2.5
10

6
6
1
5
2
5
2

10
5
4

12
10
6

7
3

7
3

14
6

5

10

15

2

4

6

3
4
3
3

2
6
3
3

5
10
6
6

3

3

6

funds

Staff of cement factories
Staff of chemical products factories
Staff of social insurance institutions
Staff of commercial establishments
Electro-technicians
Textile workers
Representatives and employees of
workers' and occupational organisations

In the case of funds for independent workers and of mixed
funds, contributions are often at a flat rate. In the Artisans'
and Small Traders' Fund, for example, the monthly contribution
is, in principle, 12,000 drachmae, but this is reduced to 8,000
for members with moderate incomes. In the Commercial
Fund the monthly contribution is on a scale ranging from
10,000 to 15,000, 20,000, 25,000 and 30,000 drachmae. In the
Chemical Workers' Fund, which is a mixed type of subsidiary

182

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

fund, the monthly contribution is 6,000 drachmae for an independent worker and 7,000 drachmae for a wage earner, of which
sum 4,000 drachmae is payable by the employer.
SOCIAL TAXES

The social taxes form a very complicated structure. In
the case of funds under the control of the Ministry of Labour,
it has been possible to collect information relative to the year
1946 concerning 61 main funds (including I.K.A. and thè
Unemployment Insurance Fund), of which 30 collected social
taxes, and also concerning 40 subsidiary funds, of which 15
collected social taxes. Social taxes are also collected by funds
under the control of other ministries, but it should be pointed
out that they are not found either in I.K.A. or in the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
The social taxes are drawn from widely varying sources.
They are levied on tobacco, salt, grain, yeast, alcohol, lignite,
coke, gas, electricity, petrol, tyres, newspapers, railway tickets,
transport of goods, etc. For greater detail, the following cases
may be cited :
Flourmill Workers' Fund .
Bakery Workers' Fund . .
Miners' Fund
Tobacco Workers' Fund . .
Chauffeurs' Fund
S.P.A.P. Railwaymen's
Fund
Fund for the staff of the
tramways and electricity
works of Salónica . . . .

20 per cent, of the milling tax.
22.5 per cent, of the milling tax.
50 drachmae per kg. of salt and 2 per
cent, of the selling price of lignite.
4 per cent, of the tobacco tax and
1,000 drachmae per kg. on the
revenue from the tobacco industry.
50 drachmae per kg. of petrol ; 200
drachmae per kg. of rubber tyres;
and 100 drachmae per kg. of synthetic tyres.
9 per cent, of the cost of passenger
tickets and of freight charges.
3 per cent, of the price of tram tickets ;
10 per cent, of the price of electric
current.

All imported goods, except grain, maize and certain others, are
subject to a 2 per cent, tax, of which three quarters are allocated to the Artisans' and Small Traders' Fund and one quarter
to the Commercial Fund. Each social insurance institution
must pay one half per cent, of its revenue to the fund for the
employees of social insurance institutions (of which the officials

SOCIAL INSURANCE

183

of the Ministry of Labour are also members). It must also
pay the same percentage of its revenue to the fund for the
representatives and employees of workers' and occupational
organisations. This fund also receives part of the compulsory
trade union contribution. 1
There is a great difference in the amount of the resources
which the social taxes represent for a given fund : in several
funds social taxes constitute an income higher than that from
contributions. The relation of the resources derived from
social taxes to those derived from contributions, in the case of
certain funds, is shown below for the financial period 1946 :
F u n d for :

Actors, authors, musicians and theatrical technicians
Representatives and employees of workers' and
occupational organisations
Chauffeurs
Marine agents and employees of marine agencies .
Exchange agencies, stockbrockers and their employees on the Athens Stock Exchange . . . .
Miners
Chemical workers
Athens press workers
Kalamata dockers
Staff of cement factories
Artisans and small traders
Persons engaged in commerce
Staff of social insurance institutions
Flourmill workers
Butchers' employees
Thessaly Railways
Northern Greece Railways

Percentage

2,426
1,973
1,427
1,387
977
540
426
336
325
251
247
202
165
164
155
152
135

In other funds, the social taxes, while not providing more
income than contributions, are none the less considerable.
Thus, in 1946, in the four funds mentioned below, social taxes
represented the following percentages of contributions :
Percentage

Bakery Workers' Fund
Pottery Workers' Fund
A.S.O. Staff Fund
Tobacco Workers' Fund 2

94
72
44
19

In 1946, in the 45 funds which collected social taxes the
total of such taxes amounted to 20,487 million drachmae, as
1

See Chapter VI, p. 257.
By Decree No. 421 of 21 October 1947 a new social tax was imposed
in favour of this fund, namely, 2,000 drachmae per kg. on the proceeds
of products of the tobacco industry subject to taxation. Of this sum
the fund is compelled to use one half towards the payment of its debt
to the State.
2

184

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

against a total of 18,167 million drachmae for contributions.
In all, therefore, the social taxes represented 113 per cent, of
contributions and thus constituted the largest proportion of the
resources of these funds.
In the 101 funds mentioned above, receipts in 1946 were
derived as follows (in thousands of drachmae) :
TABLE XXII.

RECEIPTS FROM 101 FUNDS IN 1946
Subsidiary
funds

Total

Source

Main funds

Contributions
Social taxes
Investment income . . .
Various receipts
. . . .

80,746,722
19,162,929
5,512,838
1,750,709

12,200,067
1,324,262
322,263
176,919

92,946,789
20,487,191
5,835,101
1,927,628

Total . .

107,173,198

14,023,511

121,196,709

For these funds, taken as a whole, contributions accounted
for 76.7 per cent, of total resources, social taxes for 16.9 per
cent., investment income for 4.8 per cent, and various receipts
for 1.6 per cent. Investment income was naturally inconsiderable because of the almost total destruction of financial reserves
as the result of inflation. Among " various receipts " are receipts
from the sale of administrative forms and receipts from fines
inflicted for breaches of the Social Insurance Acts. Several
funds collect entrance fees, and also fees on marriage, which
are negligible, amounting to little more than entrance fees.
In I.K.A. in 1946 the total revenue was 36,287 million
drachmae, of which 99.25 per cent, come from contributions,
0.36 per cent, from inve tment income and 0.39 per cent, from
various receipts. For the same financial period, receipts for
the Unemployment Insurance Fund were 13,311 millón drachmae, of which 99.47 per cent, came from contributions, 0.42
per cent, from investment income and 0.11 per cent, from
other sources. It will be seen that in these two funds, which
are the largest in the country, almost the entire revenue came
from contributions.
Administration
Greek social insurance institutions possess legal personality.
They are autonomous and under the general supervision of the
Minister of Labour for the most part, although some are under

SOCIAL INSURANCE

185

the supervision of other Ministers. At the head of each fund is a
board of directors, composed of representatives of the insured
persons, of the employers in the case of a wage earners' fund, and
of civil servants or experts. The composition of the board of
directors is determined either by an Act or by the rules of the
fund. In the case of most funds the chairman is an official of
the Ministry which supervises the fund, and the Minister of
Finance is represented on the board of directors of several
funds. Certain funds also possess subsidiary committees, regular
or extraordinary, and local administrative committees exist in
the local offices of the funds. Naturally the internal administration and organisation of services varies as between one fund
and another, so that it is impossible to give a detailed description
of them. Generally speaking, apart from certain rare exceptions,
the services of each institution work independently of the
corresponding services in other institutions. Thus it often
happens that the same work is done in more than one fund.
In I.K.A. contributions are collected on the stamp system.
Each member must have an insurance book, which he must
hand to his employer when he enters his service. This book
contains a description and a photograph of the member and his
registration number. On the following pages the employer
sticks stamps equivalent to contributions for a given wage
period (a week, a fortnight, a month). In addition, the employer
must record in the insurance book the beginning and the end of
each wage period, the number of working days and the total
wage. When all the leaves have been filled up with stamps, the
book is replaced by another one with the same registration
number. Returned books are placed in the member's file and
preserved by the district office. In actual practice, the number
of registration numbers for insurance books issued up to the
end of 1939 exceeded half a million, although the number of
insured persons must have been considerably less. It is therefore
to be presumed that certain insured persons possessed two or
more insurance books under different numbers, a situation which
naturally causes serious administrative difficulties. This state
of affairs inevitably became worse during the war, and at the
present time the system is operated only with great difficulty.
Insurance stamps can be bought at the private banks with
which I.K.A. has contracts. Each employer has a stamp purchase book and every purchase is entered as a receipt. A copy
of this receipt is also sent by the bank to I.K.A., which draws up
13

186

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

a statement for each undertaking. In addition, the control is
strengthened by a legal provision which requires employers
who employ more than three wage earners to keep wage lists.
The system of collecting contributions is different in the
case of dockers and of State employees. In the latter case,
contributions are paid directly to I.K.A., and I.K.A. itself makes
the entries in the insurance books.
Every insured person who claims sickness benefit must
submit a sickness book. This book is issued on request to any
insured person who has completed the qualifying period for
sickness benefits. It contains a photograph and is valid for the
period for which the insured person is covered as regards sickness
insurance, by virtue of previous employment. It can be either
prolonged or renewed. In it are entered medical consultations,
prescriptions, etc. All benefits granted, except medical consultations and medical supplies, are also entered on the individual
files kept by the benefits service of each district office. Another
sickness book is issued to members of the insured person's
family, containing the photographs of all the persons entitled to
benefit. Benefits in cash are paid by the banks. The pensioner is
supplied with a special book, in which the bank enters the
payments it makes, after verifying them on a list communicated
to it by I.K.A. Generally speaking, cash sickness benefits are
paid by means of a special order for payment.
The system described above is in many ways inconvenient
for the insured person. The procedure for obtaining cash
benefit is complicated. The insured person must : (1) apply to
I.K.A. for a sickness book ; for this purpose he must submit his
insurance book, which is temporarily handed to him by his
employer ; (2) return to I.K.A. after several days to procure
his sickness book ; (3) go to the dispensary for medical consultation ; (4) go to I.K.A. to draw the order of payment for benefits
in cash ; and (5) go to the bank to draw the benefit itself.
As regards other funds, most of those which cover the wage
earners of several undertakings also use insurance books and
also, very often, the system of stamps. In principle, each
fund must keep a register of its insured members and must
prepare a balance sheet of contributions and benefits. It must
also supervise the collection of contributions and the payment
of benefits. The Unemployment Insurance Fund keeps no
register of insured persons. In case of need it has recourse
to the insurance books of I.K.A. or to those of the main funds.

SOCIAL INSURANCE

187

But the Unemployment Insurance Fund possesses all the other
services for the collection of contributions and payment of
benefits. These services operate independently of the similar
services of the other funds and, in particular, of I.K.A. This
lack of liaison shows up very clearly when a comparison is
made between revenue from contributions, for the same period
and for the same districts, to I.K.A. and to the Unemployment
Insurance Fund.
Administrative costs vary as between one fund and another.
This is only to be expected, in view of the fact that all the
funds do not carry the same branches of insurance. Below is
given a summary of administrative costs (a) for the financial
period 1938-1939 for a group of 134 funds, some of which were
not under the supervision of the Minister of Labour, and
(b) for the financial period 1946, for a group of 101 funds, all
of which were under the supervision of the Minister of Labour.
134 funds
101 funds
1938-1939
1946
(million drachmae)

Receipts
Contributions
Expenses
Benefits
Administrative costs

2,106
1,183
1,227
1,036
102

121,197
92,947
81,103
69,956
9,847

Administrative costs thus amounted to the following percentages of the total :
Receipts
Contributions
Expenses
Benefits

134 funds

101 funds

4.8
8.6
8.3
9.8

8.1
10.6
12.1
14.1

The figures for the two periods are not directly comparable ;
nevertheless, it is clear that administrative costs, have considerably increased.
Below are shown, for the financial period 1946, the separate
figures for I.K.A. and for the Unemployment Insurance Fund :
T fr A

Unemployment
Insurance Fund
(million drachmae)

Receipts
Contributions
Expenses
Benefits
Administrative costs

36,561
36,287
35,412
30,673
4,454

13,603
13,531
5,188
4,502
545

188

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Administrative costs therefore represented the following
percentage of the total :
TK A

Receipts
Contributions
Expenses
Benefits

12.2
12.3
12.6
14.5

Unemployment
Insurance Fund

4.0
4.0
10.5
12.1

In 1938-1939 administrative costs in I.K.A. represented
6.7 per cent, of total contributions. The fact, therefore, that
they rose to 12.3 per cent, of contributions is the more significant
in that, in 1938-1939, contributions were fixed at 7.6 per cent.
of the insured persons' wages, whereas in 1946 they were, in
principle, fixed at 10 per cent, of wages. It follows that, if
administrative costs are taken as a percentage of the total
wages of insured persons, the increase will appear even more
considerable. In the case of the Unemployment Insurance
Fund, account should be taken of the fact that the budget of
administrative costs includes an item of 59 million drachmae
for the (partial) upkeep of the employment offices.
On a general view of the administration of social insurance,
it can be said that it is complicated, that it throws a heavy
administrative burden on the employers, that it causes employed
persons and beneficiaries much waste of time and trouble and
that, as an inevitable consequence of all this, it involves comparatively high administrative charges, which charges have
appreciably increased in recent years.
It should also be noted that, apart from administrative costs
properly so called, the system imposes (a) heavy administrative
charges on employers ; and (b) constantly recurring expenditure
on insured persons {e.g., for photographs of themselves and members of their family).
Finance
The financial systems of Greek social insurance institutions
are not governed by any single general regulation. Act No. 2868
of 1922 on the compulsory insurance of workers and salaried
employees in private undertakings makes no mention of financial
regulations. Each separate institution endeavours to collect
funds to meet its current expenditure and to accumulate
actuarial reserves on the one hand and a security fund on the
other. In 1932 when the preparatory work was being done on the

SOCIAL

189

INSURANCE

Social Insurance Act which established I.K.A., Professor
Schoenbaum drew attention to the unfavourable financial
situation of several funds. Before the war, I.K.A. operated, on
the pension side, on the average premium system and, as regards
the sickness branch, on an assessment system which allowed of
the constitution of security reserves. The actuarial calculations
were established on the basis of a 5 per cent, interest rate and, in
actual practice, the revenues from capital exceeded this technical
rate. None of the underlying hypotheses of these calculations
have any further value today because of the war, the occupation
and the inflation, with the result that all measures taken after
the liberation have been unable to aim at anything but achieving
short-term equilibrium between expenditure and income. The
loss of these funds and the disruption of the economic structure
of social insurance continue to make their effects felt not only
in the functioning of I.K.A. but in all the other funds. It will
be impossible to introduce measures calculated to establish
long-term financial equilibrium until some degree of economic
and financial stabilisation is achieved.
Table X X I I I shows the investment of capital in social
insurance institutions before and after the war.
The original Act laid down certain rules for the investment
of I.K.A.'s available funds. These had to be invested in State
TABLE X X I I I .

INVESTMENT OF CAPITAL IN SOCIAL

INSURANCE

INSTITUTIONS
134 funds
on 31 March 1939 »
Item

Thousand
drachmae

Percentage

101 funds
on 31 December 1946 3
Thousand
drachmae

Percentage

Cash in hand and bank

Personal loans
Real property
Furniture, etc
Debtors

. . . .
. . . .

1,548,084
1,712,169
711,998
1,311,305
855,922
27,795
458,544
6,625,817
803,296
5,822,521

1
2

23.4 31,904,433
25.8
8,312,113
10.71
19.8 1 1,636,804
12.9 12,077,367
0.5
833,716
6.9
12,397,540
100.0

67,161,973
19,799,791

47.5
12.4
2.4
18.0
1.2
18.5
100.0

47,362,182

Including certain funds not under the supervision of the Minister of Labour.
Under the supervision of the Minister of Labour.

190

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

funds, in stock guaranteed by the State or in mortgages, or had
to be used for the acquisition of real property. Part of the net
assets might be used for the acquisition of curative establishments. On 31 December 1940, the net assets of I.K.A. were
699 million drachmae, of which 420 million were on loan to the
State and 200 million represented cash in hand and bank
deposits. On 31 December 1946, investments by I.K.A. and by
the Unemployment Insurance Fund were divided as follows :
TABLE XXIV.

INVESTMENTS BY I.K.A. AND T H E UNEMPLOYMENT

INSURANCE FUND AT 3 1 DECEMBER

Unemployment
Insurance Fund

I.K.A.

Cash in hand and bank
deposits
Loans
Real property
Debtors

. . . .

1946

Million
drachmae

Percentage

Million
drachmae

4,737,111
513,920
31,452
13,059
265,914
1,239,570

69.6
7.6
0.5
0.2
3.9
18.2

8,666,831
10,943

97.0
0.1

115,405
140,183

1.3
1.6

6,801,026
6,228,999

100.0

8,933,362
380,542

100.0

572,027

Percentage

8,552,820

It should be observed that, in the case of I.K.A., loans are
granted to the staff or to pensioners. This table shows the lack
of any form of long-term investment. As regards I.K.A. it is
clear that the present situation does not permit of the constitution of reserves such as to justify long-term investments, and
that I.K.A. must, in present circumstances, give priority to the
need for keeping its funds as fluid as possible.
The financial situation is, generally speaking, unfavourable.
In many funds it is even alarming. The Mission was not able
to make any detailed examination of the situation in each
fund, since neither the necessary time nor the indispensable
statistical data were available. None the less, such enquiries
as it was possible to make justify the conclusion that, generally
speaking, the financial situation is bad and will probably get
worse, unless the necessary remedial measures are taken. In

SOCIAL INSURANCE

191

the 134 funds taken into consideration, the net assets on 31
March 1939 were 5,823 million drachmae. Expenses during
the previous financial period amounted to 1,227 million drachmae. Thus, at that date, the net assets were 475 per cent, of
the total annual expenditure. If, from the group of 101 funds
mentioned above, four funds which undertake only unemployment insurance are excluded, for the.remaining 97 funds the
net assets on 31 December 1946 were 38,744 million drachmae
and the expenses during the year were 75,687 million drachmae.
Thus the net assets were no more than 51 per cent, of the total
annual expenditure.
For 57 main funds covering sickness insurance and pension
insurance the net assets on 31 December 1946, as a percentage
of total annual expenditure, were as follows : 4 funds : deficit ;
19 funds : less than 50 per cent. ; 8 funds : more than 50 but
less than 100 per cent. ; 14 funds : more than 100 but less than
200 per cent. ; 2 funds : more than 200 but less than 300 per
cent. ; 10 funds : more than 300 per cent.
In 28 subsidiary funds granting pensions, the proportion
of net assets to total annual expenditure was as follows : 3 funds :
less than 50 per cent. ; 3 funds : more than 50 per cent, but less
than 100 per cent. ; 7 funds : more than 100 per cent, but less
than 200 per cent. ; 3 funds : more than 200 per cent, but less
than 300 per cent. ; 12 funds : more than 300 per cent.
It should be emphasised that the relation of net assets to
total annual expenditure is not in itself enough to enable a
judgment to be formed on the financial position of the institution, particularly in the case of a pension fund. The number
of beneficiaries increases rapidly during the later years of the
operation of a fund, so that during the first years of its existence
expenditure does not reach its full development, and the proportions given above do not afford an exact picture of the situation.
This is clearly true of the majority of Greek institutions, particularly the subsidiary funds.
The four main funds which showed a deficit on 31 December
1946 are the Tobacco Workers' Fund, the Potters' Fund, the
Fund of the staff of the Attica Railway and the Miners' Fund.
It should be observed that the most important institution of
all, namely, I.K.A., has only very small reserves ; on 31 December 1946, the net assets of the pensions branch of I.K.A. amounted to 4,728 million drachmae, and the sickness branch showed
a deficit of 4,156 million drachmae. Thus, in all, the net assets

192

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

amounted to 572 million drachmae, i.e., to barely 1.6 per cent.
of total expenditure in 1946.
A comparison between total annual expenditure and total
annual revenue again shows a disturbing situation. In the case
of several funds, expenditure exceeded revenue in 1946. This
was particularly the case for the four funds mentioned above,
which showed a deficit on 31 December 1946. As regards I.K.A.,
in 1946 it was possible to cover expenditure out of receipts, but
the sickness branch showed a deficit of 2,937 million drachmae,
which could be covered only by drawing upon the balance
realised during the same period on pension insurance. For the
first seven months of 1947, the situation was much the same ;
the deficit for the sickness branch was estimated at 691 million
drachmae. As regards the district offices of I.K.A., there is a
chronic deficit in the sickness branch of some of them and, in
particular, in the Athens district office, which, in its sickness
branch, shows a deficit greater than the total deficit of I.K.A.
On the other hand, the situation of the Unemployment
Insurance Fund is most satisfactory. On 31 December 1946,
the net assets amounted to 8,553 million drachmae, and they
have continued to increase rapidly since that date.
Fundamental Problems
The main features of the social insurance schemes and of
their operation outlined in the preceding pages must be
considered in close relation to the economic situation of the
country. All questions connected with social security are dependent on economic conditions, and it is impossible to achieve a
satisfactory system of social security in an unsound economy. In
the sphere of social security, no measure can with advantage be
taken unless its economic effects have first been considered and
unless there is some assurance that the measures will help
towards a lasting solution on a solid basis. Such concern with
the national economy is no less important than concern for social
problems properly so called.
Thus, in order to establish and maintain social security
in Greece, the starting point must be the economic situation of
the country, which, as is known, has not been prosperous in the
past, and is now less so than ever. Since the national income
is low, the proportion of it which can be allotted to social
insurance is necessarily also low, and the share in benefits which

SOCIAL

INSURANCE

193

each individual can receive is insufficient from the social point
of view. In support of this point, several figures can be adduced :
at the present time the minimum amount of the old-age or
invalidity pension is 1,284,000 drachmae per year, which
represents about $140 per year (on the free market, $1 equals
9,200 drachmae). This total is certainly not high from
the social point of view or from the point of view of the beneficiary who possesses no other means. On the other hand, a
comparison of the pension with the national income per head
gives the following results : in Greece, the minimum amount
stated above for pensions in 1947, if converted into dollars at
the 1947 rate, represents 156 per cent, of the national income
per head in 1938, if the latter is converted into dollars on the
1938 basis. In the United States, the average pension for a
single person in 1946 represented 59 per cent, of the national
income per head in 1938. In Great Britain, at present, the
normal pension for a single person is equivalent to 69 per
cent, of the national income per head in 1938. According to
the new Swedish Act, the maximum pension for a single person
is equivalent to 89 per cent, of the national income per head
in 1938. These comparisons bring out the real difficulties which
arise if account is taken, on the one hand, of the low level of
individual pensions and, on the other, of the limited resources
of the national economy.
Another important fact which should be taken into consideration is the absence of any measures of social security in favour
of persons engaged in agriculture, although they form the major
part of the whole population. The standard of life of the rural
population is lower than that of the urban population, and there
can be no doubt that agricultural workers and small farmers
greatly need the protection of social security. Although it
would seem impossible in the near future to take any measures
to extend social security to the agricultural population, a longterm social policy must of necessity concern itself with this
group. Any legislative measures which may be taken in the
future concerning social insurance should progressively aim at
making it possible to protect the agricultural population in
accordance with the principles of social security. Nevertheless,
it should be observed that the system at present in force cannot
be directly extended to agricultural workers. The greater
proportion of the receipts of social insurance institutions
is derived from contributions. The incomes of the farm popula-

194

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

tion, and particularly their incomes in cash, are so low that it
would be impossible to levy a sufficient contribution on them
without laying upon them an intolerable burden. Moreover, the
cost of collecting contributions and other administrative costs
would be excessively high. As regards the agricultural population, therefore, it would seem that attention should rather be
concentrated, first, on attempts to organise public health
services and to supply medical attention, and as a second
stage, on the establishment of a system of non-contributory
pensions.
Since the financial resources available for social security
in Greece are comparatively small, it becomes of the utmost
importance to keep within the general principles on which a
rational system can be based. The distribution of these financial
resources between the beneficiaries must take account of the
urgency of the beneficiaries' needs. In the first place, the
conditions for the grant of benefits in cash must be such that
these benefits can be granted only to persons who are incapable
of earning their living by their own work. The amount of the
benefits must depend on the one hand on individual requirements and, on the other, on economic possibilities. It is clear
that any unjustifiable privilege granted to one group of beneficiaries works inevitably to the prejudice of other groups.
The collection of revenue and the determination of its sources
must be such as to combine the largest measure of social justice
with the best possible distribution of the burden over the national
economy. The mechanism of the whole system must be as simple
as possible in order to reduce administrative costs to the strict
minimum. The Mission takes the view that the problems and
principles just enunciated are those which essentially emerge as
the result of a realistic examination of the present situation in
Greece, especially as regards social security. The Mission is
quite aware that the consequences of the war, the occupation
and the inflation, as well as the present political and economic
situation, do not immediately permit of any radical and permanent reform of the system ; but this makes it all the more
important that the provisional measures which it is indispensable
to take should make for permanent stabilisation and should
progressively prepare for such stabilisation.
Pre-war legislation was essentially based on the principle
of insurance. The charges imposed on an institution were
balanced by the right of that institution to receive either con-

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195

tributions or social taxes. The rights of each insured person
were closely related to his obligations, and, in particular, pensions depended on the period over which insurance had continued
and on the wages subject to contribution. The distortion of
the whole system as the result of the war and the occupation
has tended to weaken the principle of insurance. Furthermore,
fresh obligations have been imposed on the insurance institutions, and in particular on I.K.A., without regard to the inevitable consequences of such obligations. At the present time
the difficult situation of the insurance institutions, and particularly of I.K.A., is aggravated by all the emergency measures
which have had to be taken in order to meet immediate needs.
The following are the additional obligations which have been
imposed on I.K.A. since the war ;
(1) the treatment of war victims on the same footing as
victims of industrial accidents ;
(2) the granting of free medical care to civil servants, to
State pensioners and to the members of their families ;
(3) the reduction of the employer's share of the contribution
from 8 to 5 per cent, in the case of employees of the State and
of the public authorities ;
(4) the deficit in the employer's share of the contribution
for wage earners in the service of the Allied military authorities;
this share should have been reimbursed by the State ; and
(5) the widening of the circle of beneficiaries, and the
increase of benefits in the case of tuberculosis.
Some idea of the financial importance of these additional
charges may be gathered from the fact that the monthly loss
suffered by I.K.A. as a result of the reduction of the contributions mentioned under (3) above amounts to 760 million drachmae. It follows that the State not only gives no subsidy to
I.K.A. but even obtains preferential treatment from it. The
decision taken in 1943 to grant benefits to tuberculous patients
even when they had not fulfilled the conditions required by
the Act, and the prolongation of the duration of daily allowances in the case of tuberculosis, put a heavy burden on
I.K.A. For the first seven months of 1947 the average number
of daily allowances paid in the sickness branch was 236,245, of
which 120,850 were in respect of tuberculosis. Since the

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

average monthly number of fresh cases of tuberculosis was only
125, this could not account for more than 22,500 daily allowances per month. It must therefore be concluded that the
increase in the number of beneficiaries, due first to the introduction in 1943 of the Ministerial Decree by which all persons
suffering from tuberculosis were entitled to all the benefits of
social insurance, and secondly, to the longer duration of benefits,
has augmented the number of daily allowances paid by I.K.A.
by two thirds of what they would have been without these
special provisions.
The revaluation of cash benefits, and in particular of pensions,
was essential and amply justified in view of the needs of the
beneficiaries. The abandonment of the principle of insurance
was inevitable, since reserves had practically disappeared ;
moreover, the instability of the currency had made long-term
planning impossible. In the revaluation of pensions, their
social function was quite rightly stressed, and the lower pensions
have been revalued at a higher rate than the higher pensions.
But this principle, in itself a fair one, has not always been
correctly applied, since account has not been taken of the fact
that one person could combine several pensions, and each
of these pensions has been separately revalued (the accumulation principle does not apply to the extraordinary supplement
of 50,000 drachmae, which can be granted only once). The
following illustrates the situation of a given beneficiary who
combines several pensions (in drachmae) : if he is the holder of a
single pension worth 2,400, he receives 150,000 ; if he is the
holder of two pensions each worth 1,200, he receives 189,000 ;
if he is the holder of three pensions each worth 800, he receives
239,000 ; if he is the holder of four pensions, each worth 600,
he receives 302,000.
A proportionately higher revaluation of the lower pensions
is justified by the necessity of granting beneficiaries the highest
possible living standards, but this advantage must not be granted
more than once if the interests of insured persons as a whole
are not to be prejudiced. Before the war it was possible to
base a justification of the principle of accumulation of pensions
on the insurance principle (namely the payment of several
contributions). But even this justification was not entirely
valid, among other reasons, because of the social taxes. As
things are now, the argument has lost all its validity and the
accumulation of pensions is nothing more than an unjustifiable

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197

privilege granted to certain categories of insured persons at
the expense of others. 1
The situation which has just been described is only one
of the regrettable consequences of the complexity of the organisation of social insurance. Clearly, the existence of a large
number of funds inevitably results in the increase of administrative costs, not only in expenditure incurred by the institutions themselves, but also in expenditure falling on insured
persons and particularly on employers. In certain districts
of small or medium size a single fund could perfectly well
operate, but the division of insured persons among several
funds leads to complications which adversely affect the funds
themselves, the insured persons and the employers and, naturally, lead to unjustifiably high administrative costs.
The Mission is well aware of the psychological and even
personal difficulties which would have to be overcome in order
to relieve and simplify the organisation of social insurance.
One of the most serious obstacles is I.K.A.'s lack of prestige,
since it would be the normal thing for most of the institutions
to be concentrated around I.K.A. Hence any programme of
simplification and unification should be preceded by the reform
of I.K.A. Furthermore, every effort should be made to standardise conditions and rates of benefit. From the point of
view of administrative practice, close collaboration should be
imposed on the funds in order to prevent the same administrative operations being repeated several times over, and in order
to reduce administrative costs by the centralisation of certain
services.
In any question of the reform of social insurance, three
main groups of insured persons must at the outset be distinguished :
(1) wage earners, and salaried employees in private undertakings and those working for the State and public authorities,
when they are not subject to the special régime for civil pensions ;
(2) civil servants who enjoy a special régime of civil pensions ; and
(3) independent workers.
1
On the introduction on 1 December 1947 of the new scale of valuation of pensions, it was decreed that, in the case of accumulation of pensions, each pension should be reduced by 15 per cent.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Account should then be taken of the fact that social insurance
is divided into three branches—sickness, unemployment and
pensions—and that, at present, main and subsidiary funds not
only exist side by side, but sometimes overlap. Some of the
subsidiary funds grant only lump-sum compensation, and are
rather in the nature of welfare institutions.
The first stages of reform should necessarily include :
(1) simple and clear definition of the activities of each
branch of insurance, with due regard to each of the three groups
of insured persons ;
(2) standardisation of the conditions of granting benefits
and of the rate of benefits in the main funds ;
(3) determination of cash benefits payable by the main
funds in such a way as to guarantee a livelihood ;
(4) determination of benefits in kind in the main funds
in such a way that insured persons and the members of their
families receive, so far as possible, effective medical attention,
both curative and preventive ;
(5) transformation of subsidiary funds into subsidiary
insurance institutions operating on the principle of insurance ;
and
(6) allocation of the receipts of social insurance to the
various institutions concerned, with reference to the charges
imposed on them and the duties which they assume in order to
guarantee social security, particularly on behalf of the financially
weak categories of insured persons.
In view of the de facto situation with which it was confronted,
the Mission considers that it is necessary, without undertaking
a more detailed analysis of conditions or of long-term schemes,
to take certain measures in the nearest possible future.
It should be made impossible for any person to belong to
more than one main fund in order to cover the same risk ;
subsidiary insurance should be limited to pension insurance,
and no one should be able to belong to more than one subsidiary
fund ; for the purpose of pension insurance, coverage by the
special system of State pensions should be considered as equivalent to membership of a main fund.
The, readjustment of official wages which has recently taken
place affords an opportunity, which should be taken, to put

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199

an end to the system of determining the amount of daily allowances on the basis of fictitious wages and to fix it on the basis of
the wages actually paid. At the same time, it would be desirable
to fix the same rates for daily allowances in sickness insurance
and in unemployment insurance. This could be done by introducing into the two branches of insurance the same wage classes
and the same percentages for calculating the allowance. Such
percentages would, of course, be in diminishing ratio, i.e., they
would decrease with the rise in wage class.
No change need be made in the main lines of the present
organisation of medical services. The concentration of medical
consultations in the dispensaries guarantees the patient proper
medical assistance, and in particular the attention of specialists.
Furthermore, dispensary treatment is well within the financial
possibilities of the insurance system. A serious difficulty which
is a heavy burden on insured persons, and even on the doctors
themselves, arises from the fact that the dispensaries are
situated in obsolete buildings which are very far from being
suitable for their purpose. In order to overcome the serious
inconveniences of such buildings, new buildings should at once
be constructed on plans specially adapting them for their use
as dispensaries. These buildings should be distributed on a
reasonable basis throughout the whole of the country and in
the large towns (Athens and Piraeus, in the first place).
The plans for such construction might be selected from the
building schemes already drawn up by the Ministry of Reconstruction and the Ministry of Public Health. It goes without
saying that the building programme for insurance purposes
should be properly related to other building programmes for
the development and reconstruction of the health equipment
of the country. As the sickness insurance funds, and I.K.A. in
particular, do not possess the necessary capital for such building,
it will be necessary to have recourse to the Unemployment
Insurance Fund, which could either lend the necessary sums or
construct the buildings on its own account and then let them
to the sickness insurance institutions. There is full justification
for such an investment of social insurance funds since it is
devoted to social ends. Furthermore, the construction of these
new buildings will make an effective contribution towards
providing work for the unemployed. The creation of wellequipped dispensaries in sufficient numbers, which will be
used for the insured persons of more than one fund, would

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

also satisfy the just claims of the insured persons for a high
standard of medical assistance, and would limit the cost of such
medical assistance by permitting more satisfactory contracts to
be arranged by the institution with the doctors.
In sickness insurance, careful attention should be given to
the possibility of introducing territorial decentralisation. While
preserving the necessary unity of insurance throughout the
country as a whole, district offices could be given a large measure
of independence, not only administrative but also financial.
Thus, sickness insurance contributions might be divided into
two parts, of which the first part—about 90 per cent.—would
be wholly at the disposal of the district office, and the rest
would belong to a central fund. The district office would be fully
at liberty to organise its work within the limits of the district
assigned to it. If it succeeded in making savings, it would be
authorised to introduce supplementary benefits (e.g., hospitalisation for members of the family of the insured person, etc.).
The central fund would function in the first place as an
equalisation fund. It would intervene in the case of such district offices as could not meet charges arising from statutory
benefits out of their own share of contributions. It would, of

course, be clearly understood that such intervention should
always be preceded by effective supervision and thorough analysis of all the operations of the office concerned. The second
task of the central fund would be to constitute a security
fund sufficiently large to meet the financial difficulties arising
either from economic developments or from biological causes,
such as epidemics. Furthermore, after having constituted a
sufficient security reserve, the central fund would be entrusted
with the work of constructing the necessary equipment for
the proper functioning of the health services, in particular,
sanatoria, clinics for preventive treatment, etc.
At the present time sickness insurance is bearing the
heavy charges arising out of the exceptional measures taken
against tuberculosis, which charges are beyond the means of the
institutions concerned. Furthermore, these exceptional measures do not permit of an effective campaign against tuberculosis,
since they are confined to certain sections of the population.
For the purpose of a rational campaign against tuberculosis,
measures must be taken which cover the whole population.
The essential prerequisites of such a general campaign are not
yet available ; in particular, there is as yet no effective network

SOCIAL

INSURANCE

201

of stations for diagnosis and curative treatment. There are
not enough sanatoria or preventive clinics, and financial resources are lacking. It is questionable whether the creation
of an institution for insurance against tuberculosis would solve
these problems, or whether such an institution would be the
best solution. The difficulties arising from the insufficiency
of funds would not be lessened, and it is even to be feared
that the creation of new institutions would lead to further
administrative costs. The Mission considers that careful
consideration should be given to another solution, which would
consist in entrusting the campaign against tuberculosis to the
sickness insurance system on the one hand and to the public
health services on the other hand, with, of course, very close
co-operation between the two. As regards sickness insurance,
tuberculous patients would be in exactly the same position as
other patients. In addition, they would receive further care
from the public health services. These latter would arrange
for the necessary attention to non-insured persons and would
also be entrusted with prophylactic measures in general. The
creation of special public health services for the campaign
against tuberculosis might be the beginning of an enlarged
public health service which could gradually extend protection for the non-insured population, one section of which
is the rural population.
As regards pension insurance, consideration may be given
first to the conditions for granting pensions and, secondly, to
the amounts granted.
The conditions for granting pensions should be carefully
revised in order that a rational system may be achieved. In
principle, the conditions should be the same in all funds, with
exceptions only for certain occupational categories in the event
of real necessity.
The qualifying period should be the same in all the main
funds and should be entirely abolished in respect of industrial
accidents. In the subsidiary funds, the qualifying period
should also be the same, but it might be longer than in the main
funds. In connection with the qualifying period, it would be
as well if the system of " contracting in " for periods previous
to membership could be abolished in the near future, since at
present it leads to abuses.
In principle, old-age pensions should be given to men at
65 years of age and to women at 60 years of age. The age
14

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

limit should be lowered for occupational categories whose
conditions of labour are particularly hard or unhealthy, or in
which the employment of elderly workers involves serious difficulties. Cases of premature aging might be treated by the
grant of an invalidity pension, but they do not justify the
lowering of the age at which the old-age pension is granted.
The fixing of the pensionable age is the more urgent since it is
clear that, at the present time, in the various funds, old-age
pensions are granted at different.ages and no account is taken
either of the arduousness of working conditions or even of the
real needs of the beneficiaries. The definition of invalidity,
which, as is known, always presents difficulties, should be the
same for all institutions and for all insured persons, with the
inevitable exception of independent workers, for whom special
regulations should be adopted. The assessment of earning
capacity which determines invalidity should be entrusted to
medical committees working for all the funds, the only means of
securing a standardised application of the system.
Survivors' pensions should be granted to members of the
family of a deceased insured person when they are incapable of
earning a living by their own work. In the first place, all
orphans' pensions should be granted up to a uniform age
limit, and extension of this limit should be granted only for
the vocational training of the orphan (apprenticeship, study,
etc.), or when the orphan is disabled for work. A serious
difficulty arises from the "fact that the existing regulations
impose no special condition for the grant of the widow's pension.
Widow's pensions are granted even in cases where the beneficiaries are capable of earning their own living, although
it is true that, in many cases, the benefits granted are no more
than grants in aid and do not guarantee a livelihood. A system
should be prepared in which widow's pensions will no longer
be granted unconditionally. Such pensions should be granted
during the first period of widowhood and, after that period, to
aged and invalid widows, or to widows who have children to
support, i.e., all widows who are not able to undertake gainful
work. As a transitional measure, pensions at the normal rate
might be granted to widows under the conditions mentioned
above, and reduced pensions to other widows.
As regards the amount of the pensions, a guiding principle
should be that the object of the pension is to compensate for
the wage or earnings lost. It follows that pensions should not

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203

exceed the wage or earnings save in exceptional cases, such as
that of a young worker who has not yet reached the normal
wage standard of his occupational category. To remedy the
drawbacks due to the combining of pensions, measures should
be taken as soon as possible to limit the total of all pensions
which a beneficiary can receive to a fixed percentage, between
75 and 90 per cent, of earnings. Such a limitation would apply
even to current pensions, but, naturally, account would be taken
of the depreciation of wages.
The calculation of the amount of the pension should be
made on different principles for the main funds and for the
subsidiary funds. In the main funds the amount of a pension
should be closely related to social needs, in order to guarantee
a proper livelihood so far as possible. On this principle the
amount of the pension should not depend on the length of
the insured person's periods of insurance, nor even on his wage
or earnings. On the contrary, the amount should be determined
according to his social needs, i.e., according to the number of
persons dependent on him. The old-age or invalidity pension
should be increased if the beneficiary is married, when his
wife is either aged or an invalid, and, of course, when she is
not otherwise entitled to a pension. The amount of the pension
should normally be increased by allowances for each child
dependent on the beneficiary. By way of example, figures
are given showing the scale of the various classes of pensions
compared with the old-age or invalidity pension of a single
person ( = 100) :
Old-age or invalidity pension for a single person
Old-age or invalidity pension for a couple . . .
Allowance for each child
"Widow's pension
Pension for an orphan (fatherless or motherless).
Pension for an orphan (fatherless and motherless)

100
125
10
75
20
40

Total survivors' pensions should not exceed the amount of
the pension which the deceased person received, or might have
received, on account of himself or of himself and his wife,
including the extra allowances for children.
In subsidiary funds, on the contrary, the pensions should
depend on the one hand on the duration of the period of insurance and, on the other, on the wages or earnings of the insured
person. In other words, any subsidiary insurance pensions
should be in relation to contributions paid in accordance with
the insurance principle. The Mission considers that the distinc-

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

tion between the objects aimed at in main insurance and
subsidiary insurance, as indicated above, would help to solve
existing difficulties.
There can be no doubt that the most urgent necessity is
the financial reform of social insurance. In the first place it
will be possible, by simplifying and centralising administrative
services, to reduce administrative costs. Unjustifiable privileges should also be abolished. These economy measures are
indispensable to restore public confidence in social insurance
institutions, based on the conviction that they are wisely and
cheaply administered.
Apart from these preliminary measures, the whole question
of the resources of the funds and of the distribution of their
burdens should be considered. At the present time the resources
of the funds consist in contributions and the proceeds of social
taxes. The Mission considers that some form of regular participation by the State should be contemplated. It will nö doubt
be difficult to achieve anything of the kind at present because of
the state of the public finances ; furthermore, it can also be
claimed that the existing social taxes represent a form of taxation
and in the last analysis are equivalent to direct participation
by the State. Whatever the form under which it operates, the
object of using public money for such purposes is to lighten the
burden of the financially weakest sections of the population.
It should, therefore, be considered whether the existing social
taxes satisfy this principle of social justice. The Mission does not
think so, because the revenue from the social taxes is not spread
over all insured persons as a whole, and because they are indirect
duties which very often hit the poorest classes most hardly. The
social taxes should first of all be centralised. This would permit
of simplifying their collection by replacing the multiplicity of
existing taxes by one or two only, without reducing the total
collected. When an improvement in the economic situation
permits, the taxes should be increased and supplemented, or even
totally replaced, by a direct subsidy charged on the national
budget. The resources thus obtained should be distributed on the
principles of social equity, and account should be taken of the
most urgent requirements. The revenue from public funds
should be allocated, in the first place, to pension insurance in the
main funds, and to the campaign against tuberculosis.
While taking full account of the present difficult position
of the public finances, the Mission considers that it is indispen-

SOCIAL

INSURANCE

205

sable to put an end to the unfair discrimination imposed by
legislation upon I.K.A., for the benefit of the State and of
public undertakings. It is abnormal that the employers' share
of contributions should be reduced for wage earners in the public
service, and also that civil servants should enjoy medical
attention without any special payments to meet this charge. The
burden of these provisions falls, in practice, upon all persons
insured with I.K.A., most of whom are in a poorer economic
position than the wage earners in the public service, or than
civil servants.
As regards contributions to social insurance, the whole
question of their total amount and their distribution between
the different branches and the different funds should be reconsidered. Such measures as could be taken at once would
not amount to a complete reform, but they should, nevertheless,
be directed towards such reform. In the first place, contributions
to pension insurance, particularly in I.K.A., should be increased,
in view of the constant increase in the number of beneficiaries.
The burden of this increase in contributions might be alleviated
by a reduction in contributions to the Unemployment Insurance
Fund.
At the present time the operation of social insurance is greatly
prejudiced by the fact that the supervision of social insurance
institutions is divided among several ministries. The result
is a multiplicity of legislative and administrative provisions
which makes it impossible to achieve rational co-ordination.
In view of the fact that the majority of social insurance institutions are at present under the Ministry of Labour, and
that there exists a Social Insurance Council composed of representatives of the authorities, the insured persons and the
employers, including also experts, it would seem appropriate
that all social insurance institutions should be placed under the
Ministry of Labour and the Social Insurance Council. Of course,
when in the case of certain occupational groups (e.g., seamen,
doctors, lawyers, clergy), other ministries are particularly
interested, such ministries would be entitled to intervene. It
would be sufficient to provide that the special measures concerning such groups should be jointly drawn up by the Minister of
Labour and by the particular minister concerned.
Social insurance can be administered in one of two ways. It
can be entrusted to institutions operating as independent
organisations, but under the supervision of the State ; or it can

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

be directly incorporated in the framework of the public service.
Each of these two solutions has its advantages and its disadvantages ; but one of the two systems should prevail, and there
should be no question of an intermediate or mixed system.
According to the law, Greek social insurance is administered
by independent institutions, but in reality, at present, the
State intervenes very often, not only in fundamental questions,
but even in the ordinary day-to-day activities of the institutions.
The result is a drag upon the wheels of administration, an
increase in administrative work and an increase in administrative costs. Moreover, when it enters into the details of the
daily life of the institutions, the State loses its position as arbiter
and controlling authority. The situation is made worse by
the fact that in many funds the chairmen are officials of the
supervising ministry. This involves a confusion as to competence which cannot but be prejudicial to supervision. The
infringements of the independence of the funds give rise to
criticism both by the insured persons and by the employers.
It is, therefore, necessary to re-establish the full autonomy of the
institutions, to decide that the governing bodies should be
appointed on nominations made by organisations of insured
persons and their employers, respectively, and to confine State
intervention : (a) to fundamental questions; and (b) to a supervision which shall be both effective and divested of any political
or personal considerations.
In conclusion, the Greek system of social insurance is
suffering at present from the effects of the political and
economic disasters through which the country has passed, and it
seems that the principles of social justice and of economic
desirability are not always respected. Far-reaching reconstruction is, therefore, indispensable. The Mission is well aware
that such a reform will require considerable time and that
social insurance cannot be stabilised before the stabilisation
of the economy of the country as a whole. It is nevertheless
indispensable that the most urgent problems should be tackled
and the appropriate measures taken as soon as possible. Such
transitional measures, however, should prepare the way for
general reforms. This point has never been lost sight of in
the suggestions made above. To the extent to which reform can
be achieved, there will be a return of confidence, on the part of
the insured persons and of public opinion, in the organisation
of social insurance and in the ends which it pursues. Workers

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207

will come to think more and more that progress is being made
towards a system of social security which can protect them
effectively against the risks by which they are threatened.
There will thus be developed an atmosphere of confidence in
the social insurance institutions and in the State which supervises
them. In this atmosphere will develop that sense of security for
the morrow which it is the main object of the system to secure
for the workers.

CHAPTER VI
THE TRADE UNION SITUATION
As might be expected, the trade union factor is of primary
importance in Greek social and economic reconstruction.
A task of such magnitude demands the co-operation of all the
living forces of the nation and, in particular, of the organised
working class.
As a result, however, of divisions within the trade union
movement, which are no more than the reflection of much
deeper political divisions, it has hitherto been impossible to
mobilise the support of the working class as a whole. Worse
still, it seems that the civil war which is raging at the frontiers
is also being waged surreptitiously in the undertakings themselves. The result is that attempts at reconstruction bear a
certain resemblance to the web of Penelope, since one small
part of the population is continually unravelling the work
which another part has patiently woven.
It is not difficult to understand the effects of such a state
of affairs on the standard of living of the workers and on
the level of social protection, as also on the practical application
of social legislation. The standard of living of the workers,
which depends directly on the effective output of the national
economy, cannot but progressively deteriorate. Even before
the war—as has been shown earlier in this Report l —the
standard of living of Greek workers was inferior to that of the
majority of wage earners in other European countries. Today, this
standard of living is no more than a fraction of its pre-war level.
The lack of a solid and united trade union movement is
clearly one of the factors which explain this situation. Furthermore, as a result of the absence of the counterbalance provided
in other countries by the trade union movement, even that
modest proportion of the national income which should be
devoted to wages may be unduly reduced, and wage earners
1

See Chapter II.

THE TRADE UNION SITUATION

209

may in consequence be required to accept sacrifices, in the cause
of reconstruction, proportionately greater than those borne by
other social classes.
Finally, there is a danger that social legislation may suffer
from the absence of real trade union influence in the undertakings themselves, an influence that should be the essential
counterpart of the official control undertaken by the labour
inspectorate.
All parties concerned are undoubtedly fully aware of the
difficulties, not to say dangers, involved in the present trade
union situation in Greece. Thus, successive Greek Governments, the Powers which have assisted Greece, the World
Federation of Trade Unions, the British Trades Union Congress,
the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, have spared no pains to cope with the situation.
In spite of this, however, it cannot be affirmed with certainty,
even three years after the liberation, that any final solution
of the problem has been found.
An attempt will be made in the pages which follow to give
an unbiased and unimpassioned conspectus of the trade union
situation in Greece.
The first part of this survey is devoted to an analysis
of the legal status of occupational organisations, the second
part to the measures taken to reconstruct the trade union
movement, and the third to the special measures taken to meet
the state of emergency.
In conclusion, an attempt will be made, on the basis of
international trade union experience, and also in the light of
the decisions on freedom of association adopted by the 30th
Session of the International Labour Conference (Geneva, 1947),
to reach certain conclusions which might be calculated to
facilitate the reconstruction of the trade union movement.
Legal Status of Occupational Organisations
CONSTITUTIONAL

GUARANTEE

OF FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION

The basis of the legal status of Greek trade unions may be
found in Article 11 of the Constitution, which affirms the right
of association in the following terms :
Greek citizens possess the right of association conforming with the
laws of the State, and in no case can the laws subject the right to

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

any previous authorisation. An association cannot be dissolved for
infringing provisions of the laws except by judicial decision.
This text shows that two fundamental guarantees are
offered to all Greek " citizens " (the term " citizens " covers
both workers and employers, and officials and agents of the
public services as well as persons employed in private industry).
Under the first of these guarantees, the regulation of freedom
of association by legislative means can never go so far as to
subject this right to preliminary authorisation by the Government. Under the second guarantee, any organisation, even if it
has been guilty of an infringement of the law involving as
penalty the dissolution of the association concerned, is entitled
to the guarantees offered by normal judicial procedure.
It will be noted that these two fundamental guarantees
were also provided for in the Resolution on freedom of association adopted by the International Labour Conference at
its 30th Session (1947), and will appear in the Convention
on freedom of association on which the 31st Session of the
Conference (1948) will be called upon to take a decision.1
Despite the civil war, these provisions of the Constitution
are at present in full force. They have, moreover, been
formally embodied in Constitutional Act No. 23 of 1945, which
ratified the agreement arrived at, immediately after the rebellion of December 1944, between the Greek Government and
the leaders of the insurrection.2
Thus, it is within the limits fixed as above by the Constitution that the Greek legislature has power to regulate the
question of trade union rights.
LEGAL REGULATION OF TRADE UNION RIGHTS

At the present time the legal regulation of trade union rights
rests on the authority of three main texts : Act No. 281 of
21 June-4 July 1914 on associations3, which includes a special
chapter on occupational associations ; Act No. 2151 of 21
March-3 April 1920 on trade unions 4 ; and Chapter IV of the
1

The International Labour Conference, meeting at San Francisco
(June-July 1948), adopted a Convention on freedom of association and
protection of the right to organise. Cf. Official Bulletin, Vol. XXXI,
No 1, 31 August 1948, p. 1.
2
Cf. Government Gazette, 23 March 1945.
3
Cf. Bulletin of the International Labour Office (Basle), Vol. X, pp. 18
et seq.
4
Cf. L.S., 1920, Gr. 1.

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Civil Code, concerning legal personality (Articles 61-106), promulgated on 10 May 1946.
It should be emphasised, however, that both the constitutional guarantees of freedom of association and the special legislation concerning trade unions were suspended on the accession
to power on 4 August 1936 of the dictatorship of General
Metaxas. A Legislative Decree of 24 October 1938 1 instituted
a system of official trade unionism entirely under the control
of the Executive Power. This deprivation over many years of
all freedom of association explains why the reconstruction of
a free trade union movement met with so many special difficulties. It is true that, as will be seen later, even in the midst
of a war, the Greek Government issued an Act, No. 3127 dated
31 October 1942 2, which repealed the 1938 Decree and reestablished the 1914 Act on freedom of association and the
1920 Act on trade unions. But this text was not applied in
practice until after it appeared in the Government Gazette in
March 1945.
Briefly, therefore, trade union rights are today regulated
by the three texts mentioned above, of which a brief analysis
will now be given.
Constitution of Occupational Organisations
Any association of at least 20 members can be freely
formed, without previous authorisation by the Government,
on the sole condition that its aims are neither illegal nor immoral.
In addition, two or more occupational associations may form
a union or federation with a view to the defence of their common
interests, while preserving their economic and administrative
autonomy.
Under section 19 of the Act on associations, occupational
associations should be exclusively concerned with the study,
protection and advancement of the economic or occupational
interests of their members of either sex belonging to the same
industrial, commercial, agricultural or other occupation or to
allied occupations.
The same section expressly prohibits mixed occupational
associations comprising both employers and workers. Any
1
2

Cf. Government Gazette, 24 October 1938.
Cf. L.S., 1942, Gr. 1.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

worker who is a member of an occupational association ceases
ipso facto to belong to it as soon as he becomes an employer or
takes up another occupation.
As in the case of all other non-profit-making associations,
occupational associations are forbidden to carry on a profession
or a trade. They may, however, conclude purchasing or other
contracts with a view to organising schools or apprenticeship
workshops, to acquiring real property, though solely for the
purpose of installing offices, meeting rooms and lecture halls,
libraries, or occupational schools therein, and, in general, to
carrying on one or other of their recognised activities after
approval by the Ministry of Labour.
They are also authorised to conclude collective labour
agreements with employers or groups of employers, for regulating such conditions of employment as engagement, dismissal,
payment of wages, hours of work, etc. The same Act confers
on recognised occupational associations the right of appointing
representatives to the Superior Labour Council1, of denouncing to the competent authority, through the medium of their
legal representatives, all persons who contravene the labour
inspection Acts or the regulations issued in application of such
Acts, and of creating, as required, employment offices and
non-profit-making offices for medical or legal assistance to the
worker.
The exercise of trade union rights is also specially protected. Under section 23 of the Act, heads of undertakings,
directors, agents or other representatives of employers are
forbidden :
(i) to prevent workers, either by dismissal or the threat of
dismissal or by other illegal means, from founding occupational
associations, from belonging to such associations or from belonging
to political parties ;
(ii) to compel workers, by similar means, to found occupational
associations or become members of any given association;
(iii) to require, in any form whatsoever, that workers should
make a written declaration promising not to belong or to cease to
belong to a given association as a condition of employment or as a
condition of the continuation of the employment contract.
Side by side with these general provisions, which are, as
will be seen, extremely liberal for the period (the Act dates
from 1914), the legislation concerning occupational organisa1

Cf. L.S., 1937, Gr. 7.

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213

tions includes detailed provisions on the recognition of trade
unions, their organisation and operation, the supervision of
their activities, their dissolution and the penalties to which
they may be subject. It is important that a short analysis of
these provisions should be made, since, as will be seen in the
second part of the chapter, it was on the basis of some of
these provisions that the Council of State took the decisions
which had a predominant influence on the development of the
trade union situation in Greece.
Recognition of Occupational Organisations
Under Article 11 of the Constitution, which guarantees the
right of occupational association without previous authorisation, the trade unions must be free to demand that they
should be legally recognised or to abstain from so demanding.
In practice, however, it would seem that recognition is considered as an essential prerequisite for the functioning of the
trade unions.
According to Article 78 of the Civil Code, an association with a non-profit-making object, and with at least 20
members, acquires legal personality from the moment that
it is entered in a special register of the court of first instance
at the place where the association has its headquarters. For
this purpose, the founder-members or the administrative bodies
of the association must submit to the court of first instance
an application accompanied by the act of foundation, the list
of the names of members of the administration, and the rules,
duly signed and dated. Under pain of being considered null
and void, the rules must give details of : (1) the objects, title
and headquarters of the association ; (2) the conditions of
membership, and of the resignation or expulsion of members ;
(3) the funds of the association ; (4) the manner in which the
association is to be represented for judicial or other purposes ;
(5) the administrative bodies of the association and the method
by which members of the executive or administrative bodies are
elected, together with reasons for which the administrative
bodies may be suspended from or divested of their functions ;
(6) the conditions under which the general meeting is convened,
meets and takes its decisions ; (7) the conditions under which
the rules may be amended ; and (8) the conditions required
for the voluntary dissolution of the association. If the appli-

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cation satisfies the required conditions, the judicial authority
publishes in the newspapers a summary of the rules and enters
the newly founded association on the register of associations.
The same procedure is followed in the case of any amendment of the rules.
The decision of the court of first instance may be appealed
against either by the association in the event of its request
being rejected or by the supervising authority in the event of the
request being accepted.
Registration as an association and the grant of legal
personality are acquired automatically if the association
fulfils all the conditions prescribed by the law. It should,
nevertheless, be emphasised in this connection that the court may
not exercise discretionary power in this respect, since to make
recognition depend on the judgment of the judicial authorities
would, in the Greek system (where recognition is a basic condition
of the existence of trade unions), be equivalent to making
the creation of an occupational association depend on previous
authorisation. As has been shown above, such a practice
would be in direct contradiction to Article 11 of the Constitution.
Regulation of Internal Activities of Occupational Organisations
Over and above the formalities required for the acquisition
of legal personality, the Civil Code and the Act on trade unions
lay down certain rules to which the operations of all organisations must conform.
The admission of new members to an organisation must
always be allowed, notwithstanding any clause to the contrary
in the rules. Similarly, members of the trade union are at all
times entitled to withdraw from it, on condition that they
notify such withdrawal at least three months before the end
of the financial period of the current year.
No member can be expelled except in accordance with the
provisions of the rules to that effect, or unless " important
reasons " require such expulsion and the general meeting has
so decided. Nevertheless, in the two months' interval following
the date of the notification of his expulsion, a trade union
member is entitled to appeal to the president of the court of
first instance, if he thinks that his expulsion has been decreed
contrary to the rules.
Section 9 of the 1920 Act on trade unions provides that a

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member who has been fined under the rules three times in a
year may be excluded by a decision of the general meeting.
Furthermore, any member of a trade union who is accused of
a misdemeanour under the Penal Code may be expelled by a
decision of the administrative council. He may, however,
appeal from such decision to the general meeting. Anyone
expelled for such a reason who is subsequently acquitted by
a judgment of the High Court immediately resumes his status
as a member.
Fines which may be inflicted on members of a trade union
may not exceed three days' wages in amount. The rules of the
union must specify in detail the cases in which fines may be
inflicted, together with the procedure to be followed for this
purpose.
Finally, Article 89 of the Civil Code lays down that all
members of an association enjoy equal rights. Special rights
cannot be either conferred or withdrawn without the consent
of all the members of the association.
Administration of Occupational Organisations
Like all other associations, trade unions must be directed
by an executive committee, composed of members of the
association, " unless the rules provide otherwise ".
Only
persons who have attained their majority and who have been
regular members of the trade union for at least a year are
eligible for the trade union executive. If the trade union concerned has been in existence for less than a year, such persons
must, in order to be eligible, have belonged to the union since
its foundation. In either case, candidates for election must
have regularly paid their contributions.
In agreement with the practice of most other countries,
the general meeting is the sovereign body of the trade union.
In default of any contrary provision in the rules, it elects the
administrative bodies of the union, decides on the admission
or expulsion of members, passes the accounts, introduces any
necessary changes in the rules or in the objects of the association, and, finally, decides on the dissolution of the association.
The general meeting is also empowered to supervise the
activity of the administrative bodies and, at any time, to
suspend members of such bodies from their functions. Nothing
in the rules of the union may restrict the right of the general

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

meeting to exclude members, provided that such exclusion is
demonstrably necessary " for important reasons ", and particularly if it is due to any serious negligence in carrying out
their duties or to any administrative incapacity.
The general meeting is, as a general rule, convened by the
executive committee, in accordance with the provisions of the
rules, as often as the interests of the association require. It
may also be convened at the request of a given number of its
members, fixed by the rules, or, failing any such provision in
the rules, on the written request of one fifth òf the members.
If a request from such a number of members has not been
complied with, the president of the court of first instance may
authorise the persons making the request to convene the general
meeting and to elect its chairman.
Decisions by the general meeting must be taken on an
absolute majority vote of the members present. Any decisions
not relating to questions duly placed on the agenda are null
and void. Decisions may be taken without a general meeting,
provided that all the members state in writing that they agree
to the proposal in question.
The Trade Union Act of 1920 defines the conditions as to a
quorum to ensure the validity of decisions. Such decisions
must be taken by an absolute majority of the members present
and are valid only if at least one third of the regular members
have taken part in the vote. In the event of no valid decisions
being taken at a first meeting, a further meeting must be
convened not less than three nor more than ten days later,
with the same agenda. This second meeting can take decisions
only if at least one quarter of the total number of regular
members are present. If, at this second meeting, the necessary
conditions are still not fulfilled, a third meeting is to be convened
within the next eight days, and its decisions are held to be
valid if at least one fifth of the regular members are present,
provided, however, that if the trade union concerned numbers
less than 100, but more than 60 members, the presence of at
least 30 members is necessary for valid resolutions to be adopted.
If this third meeting again fails to fulfil the necessary conditions,
there must be an interval of at least one month before a further
meeting with the same agenda can be convened, and this
meeting will then be considered as a first meeting (cf. section
3 of the Trade Union Act of 1920).
The same Act, however, provides an exception to the

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general quorum rule in favour of the unions of railwaymen
and seamen and, generally speaking, of all unions whose members are compelled because of their duties to be constantly
travelling or continuously occupied or to live at a distance
from the headquarters of the union. Unions of this type are
entitled to hold a general meeting if one quarter of the regular
members are present or, in default of this number, they may,
within a week, hold a further meeting either with the number
of members originally present, or with the number of members
required by the rules as necessary for the adoption of resolutions. Decisions of special importance from the trade union
point of view must be taken either by secret ballot or by a
qualified majority. Thus, for example, any vote by a general
meeting concerning elections, votes of confidence in the executive, the approval of accounts or, generally speaking, personal
questions or strikes is valid only if taken by secret ballot.
Furthermore, resolutions thus carried by secret ballot are
invalidated if persons who were not at the time active members of the trade union took part in them. Finally, trade union
members under 18 years of age are not allowed to take part
in votes on those resolutions of the general meeting which have
to be taken by secret ballot. They may, however, take part in
elections.
Any decision concerning the amendment of the rules or
the dissolution of the association must be taken in the presence
of at least one half of the members and by a three-quarters
majority of members present. Decisions concerning any change
in the aims of the association can be taken only with the consent
of all the members. Members absent from the meeting must
give their consent in writing (Articles 99 and 100 of the Civil
Code).
These latter provisions involve conditions stricter
than those which are laid down in the Trade Union Act and
have not yet been explicitly repealed by the new regulations.
Section 2, paragraph 2, of the Trade Union Act of 1920
provides, in fact, that, in any question of the dissolution of a
trade union or alteration of its rules, whenever the requisite
conditions for passing resolutions have not been fulfilled by
the end of the second meeting, the committee may not convene
a further meeting before the end of another month. The meeting
thus convened is to be considered as a first meeting and the
vote is to be taken, in accordance with the provisions cited
above, by an absolute majority of the members present, and on
15

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

condition that at least one third of the regular members have
taken part in the vote.
The 1920 Act also contains the following special provisions
on voting in the event of strikes or lockouts :
In the event of a strike provoked by a trade union—irrespective
of the manner in which it takes place—the persons permanently or
temporarily entrusted with the direction of the trade union on the
date in question, even if they are fulfilling their duties pending replacement, shall within 48 hours after the beginning of the strike,
convene a general meeting of the members, except in the case when
the strike has been resolved upon by a general meeting held not more
than eight days earlier. If the meeting is not qualified to adopt
resolutions within the meaning of the present Act, a new meeting
shall be called within 24 hours. If this meeting also is not qualified
to adopt resolutions within the meaning of the Act, the executive of
the union shall not undertake any business on behalf of the union
during the strike, other than the calling of a new meeting and the
representation of the union before the administrative authorities
(section 8).
The same provisions apply to employers' associations in
the event of a lockout. Final decisions taken by a general
meeting are null and void if they are either illegal or immoral.
Such invalidity, however, must be definitely pronounced by
the court, as the result of an action brought within a timelimit of six months, from the date of the decision in question,
by any member who disagrees, or " b y any other person legitimately concerned ".
Furthermore, at the request of the administrative committee
of the union, or of one of its members, or of the public prosecutor, the president of the court of first instance may refuse
to give effect to an invalid resolution.
From the above analysis, it will be seen that the internal
life of the trade unions is regulated in detail and that the provisions contained in trade union rules are to a large extent
prescribed by legislation. But with the exception of certain
provisions which are so vague that they give rise to futile
controversy (these will be referred to at the end of the chapter),
the majority of the clauses concerned seem inspired solely
by the desire to guide inexperienced trade unions in the
drafting of regulations to govern their organisation and
activities. It may also be noted that this " code for the
regulation of trade union life " is, in its main lines, in
accordance with the rules which trade unions in other countries
have freely adopted.

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On the other hand, as will be seen later, certain provisions
concerning the supervision of trade unions and their enforced
dissolution have given rise to appreciable difficulties in practice.
Supervision of Occupational Organisations
Section 19 of the Associations Act of 1914 limits supervision
to the following matters : (a) the application of the provisions
of the Act ; (b) the observance of the rules ; and (c) supervision
of the administration and the funds of associations. So far as
occupational organisations are concerned, this supervision is
exercised by officials of the Ministry of Labour and in their
absence by the prefects (nomarchs). At the present time, the
Minister of Labour is the supreme supervisory authority.
In order to prevent any arbitrary action on the part of
labour inspectors or prefects, any party concerned is entitled to
appeal against their decisions. Such appeals must be addressed
to the Minister of Labour, whose decisions are final.
Labour inspectors, and, in their absence, the prefects,
may, at the request of the Minister of Labour on his own initiative, or at the request of at least 20 members who have fulfilled
their obligations under the rules, undertake enquiries, written
or oral, with regard to any persons entrusted with administrative duties, or with regard to any other persons, or may proceed
to examine the books and accounts. A report on each case
must be made to the Minister of Labour. They may also take
part in trade union meetings and supervise such meetings in
accordance with the provisions of the law.
It would appear, however, that this right of attendance at
and supervision of meetings granted to the labour inspectorate
or to the prefects does not extend to trade union meetings
in camera, since the Constitution guarantees all Greek citizens
the right to meet peacefully and without arms. The Constitution further provides that the police may be present only at
public meetings. Nevertheless, open-air meetings may be forbidden if they endanger public security as defined in the Act.
Section 32 of the 1914 Act also provides that, if it is proved
that the rules of an association have been violated, or in the
event of any other " anomaly ", the supervising authority
may request the governing body of the association concerned
to take all necessary measures to restore order within a definite
time-limit. If, at the expiration of this time-limit, the necessary

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

action has not been taken, the penalties provided for in section
41 of the Act, i.e., a fine or two months' imprisonment, or both,
may be enforced. Section 33 of the same Act adds that should
it be proved that an infringement has been committed involving
the penalties provided for by the Act, and still more, if some
serious administrative or financial irregularity has been proved
such as to involve sanctions under the Penal Code, the Minister
of Labour may dismiss the administrative committee and
appoint a provisional committee. The Minister must, however,
immediately convene an extraordinary general meeting in
order to proceed to the election of a new committee.
In the event provided for in this section there is clearly no
question of more than the provisional suspension of an administrative committee, and not of the dissolution of an organisation as such, since such action would clearly be inconsistent
with Article 11 of the Constitution, which, as has been shown
above, reserves for the judiciary alone the power of pronouncing the dissolution of such an association, under conditions
which will be considered below.
Dissolution and Reconstitution of Occupational Organisations
In common with the laws of most other countries, Greek
law makes a distinction between the voluntary dissolution of
an association and its dissolution by the judiciary. Any association may at any moment be voluntarily dissolved as the
result of a decision taken by the general meeting, in accordance
with the procedure laid down by its rules and by the law. The
association is considered to be dissolved when the number of
its members is less than ten.
Dissolution by the judiciary is provided for in the circumstances enumerated in Article 105 of the Civil Code. This
Article is in the following terms :
An association may be dissolved as the result of a verdict given
by the court of first instance at the request of the administrative
committee, or at the request of one fifth of the members, or also at
the request of the supervising authority, in the following circumstances :
(1) if it is impossible to appoint an administrative committee as
the result of a reduction in the number of members, or for any
other reason, or if it is established that the operation of the
association has become impossible under the existing rules ;

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221

(2) if the objects of the association have been attained or if,
as the result of a long suspension of its activities, it can be
concluded that the association has abandoned its professed
objects ;
(3) if the association is pursuing objects different from those
assigned in its rules or if the objects or the activities of the
association are contrary to law or to good morals, or constitute
a menace to public order.
An appeal may be lodged against the verdict of the court
of first instance to the court of appeal, whose decision is
final. The funds of a dissolved organisation are distributed in
accordance with the rules. In default of provisions to this
effect, the assets of the organisation in liquidation revert to
the Treasury, which is required to apply them to the objects
pursued by the dissolved body. In no circumstances may the
assets of an association be divided among its members.
The provision which at the present time is undoubtedly the
most important of all these many regulations is that which
deals with the appointment of a provisional executive in the
event of the absence of persons entrusted with the administration of an association.
Article 69 of the Civil Code provides that the president of
the court of first instance may appoint a provisional administrative committee " at the request of any persons concerned ",
if any of the persons responsible for the administration of the
association are not present or if their interests are opposed to
the interests of the association.
At the present time, the whole process of reconstructing
the Greek trade union movement is based on this provision of
the Civil Code, which was introduced only recently into the
legislation and which could not, therefore, be invoked during
the long political and judicial struggle that took place in
connection with the appointment of a Provisional Executive of
the Greek General Confederation of Labour. The full significance of this regulation will be discussed later on.
The Practical Reconstruction of the Trade Union Movement
The problem of reconstructing the Greek trade union
movement was not so much a legal problem—since legislation
prior to the dictatorship period supplied a reasonably appropriate foundation for this purpose—as a practical problem,
which might be defined as the problem of restarting a free

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trade union movement that should be united, really representative of the working classes and, in consequence, competent
to defend the occupational interests of its members and to
play its part in the reconstruction of the war-devastated
country.
It was clearly inevitable that the reconstruction of the
Greek trade union movement would be an undertaking of
particular difficulty, since trade union freedom was completely
eclipsed from the moment that General Metaxas took power
(4 August 1936) until the liberation (12 October 1944). During
this long period, official trade unions whose leaders were directly
appointed by the Executive Power were substituted for the
old free trade unions. At the liberation, therefore, it became
at once necessary to reconstruct ab initio a free trade union
movement which could dispense with the wardenship of the
public authorities.
It is not without interest to note that as the result of the
installation of dictatorships and of enemy occupation, many
countries in Europe, e.g., France, Italy and all countries in
Central Europe and the Balkans, passed through the same
crisis. None the less, in all these countries it was found possible
to reconstruct the trade union movement rapidly, so that it
has again been operating normally for several years.
The main obstacle to a rapid reconstruction of the trade
union movement in Greece was the extreme division existing
within the movement itself, as expressed in rival tendencies
which had been exacerbated by the civil war. According to a
memorandum of the Greek Ministry of Labour \ there were, at
the time of the liberation, at least six main tendencies in the
Right group, and as many in the Left group. The existence of
these tendencies, the real importance of which could not be
determined in default of elections, and which owed their origin
as much to personal ambitions as to ideological differences,
naturally led to a fierce campaign for the domination of the
trade union movement.
The result was that the mere question of appointing a
Provisional Executive to undertake as soon as possible genuine
elections among the organised workers, for the purpose of
1
Ci. Notes on the Memorandum of the W.F.T.U. concerning
Alleged Action Prejudicial to Greek Trade Union Organisations (Athens,
10 August 1946). This memorandum was published after the dissolution of the Executive elected by the General Confederation of Labour.

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223

setting up the ordinary executive and administrative bodies,
assumed a political importance of the first order. All the parties
concerned were profoundly convinced that an Executive,
even a provisional one, whose duty it was to hold elections,
would always be able to influence those elections in such a way
that its own group would inevitably come off victorious.
The problem, therefore, was to find a place in the Provisional Executive for representatives of all tendencies, to
induce these representatives to co-operate honestly in organising
elections, and finally to make them accept the results of such
elections with a good grace.
It was to the solution of this apparently simple problem
that the representatives of the British Trades Union Congress,
the World Federation of Trade Unions, successive Greek
Governments, the judicial authorities and the Labour Attaches
of Great Britain and the United States addressed their earnest
endeavours.
In order to form an objective judgment on the existing
situation, a brief historical survey must be given of the efforts
made and of the reasons why they failed. Two main periods
may be distinguished :
(1) the period from the. liberation until the invalidation by
the Council of State of the Executive elected by the first postwar Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress (29 May 1946) ;
(2) the period between the appointment by the courts of
a Provisional Executive and the holding of the Pan-Hellenic
Trade Union Congress in March 1948.
FIRST ATTEMPT TO RECONSTRUCT THE TRADE UNION
MOVEMENT

The Trade Union Movement at the Time of the Liberation
The Greek Government in exile, appreciating the difficulties which would inevitably arise in reconstructing the
free trade union movement after the liberation of the country,
issued on 31 October 1942 an Act concerning the re-establishment of trade union liberties.
Section 1 of this Act repealed the Act of 1938 on occupational
organisations which was issued during the dictatorship, together
with all other provisions of Acts or Royal Decrees subsequently

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issued concerning the composition, functioning and representation of the " National Confederation of the Workers of
Greece ", or of unions of wage earners of all kinds, or federations
of such unions.
Section 2 re-established the 1914 Associations Act and
the 1920 Trade Union Act and provided that the amendment
of trade union rules made necessary as a result of the repeal
of the 1938 Act should be carried out by a decision of the
general meeting of the members of the unions, or of their
federations.
Under section 3, persons who, under the repealed Act, had
been entrusted by the unions with any special duties or with
any representational functions, were to be considered as suspended from their functions from the time of the occupation
of Greece by the enemy.
Finally, under section 4, a Royal Decree, issued on the
proposal of the Minister of Labour, was to settle all questions
which might arise as a result of the repeal of the 1938 Act, and
of the re-enactment of the 1914 Act on associations and of the
1920 Act on trade unions, together with all other executive
details raised by the Act in question.
This Act was to come into force at the date of its publication
in the Gazette of the Greek Government in exile, published in
London.
It will be seen, therefore, that the Act of 31 October 1942
completely abolished all the legislation of the dictatorship, reestablished trade union liberty and authorised the Government,
by Decree issued on the proposal of the Minister of Labour,
to regulate all practical questions which might arise as the
result of the re-establishment of the old laws which guaranteed
trade union freedom.
In practice, from the liberation onwards, representatives
of the " Greek General Confederation of Labour ", which had
been reconstructed underground, and which had taken an
active part in the resistance movement known as E.A.M., had
taken possession of the headquarters of the General Confederation of Labour at Athens and also the headquarters of other
workers' centres in the provincial towns, both of trade union
federations and of local unions. This action by the Left elements
of the trade union movement led to protests from the remaining
elements, who were thus expelled from the leadership of the
trade union movement.

T H E TRADE UNION SITUATION

225

In pursuance of the powers conferred upon him by section
4 of the Act of 31 October 1942, the Minister of Labour then
in office, Mr. Porphyrogenis, a Communist, appointed, by a
decision of 28 November 1944, a Provisional Executive Committee of which all the members belonged to E.A.M., and
instructed this committee to proceed at once to hold elections.
The legality of this decision was contested on the grounds
that the Act of 31 October 1942 had not yet been published
in the Greek Government Gazette and that such publication
was considered indispensable for its validity.
However that may be, the date fixed for the elections
(early December 1944) saw the outbreak of the civil war which
has continued uninterruptedly, despite long periods of comparative calm, not only on the frontiers but even within the
country itself.
After the rebellion had been put down in Athens, the Provisional Executive of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour, which was accused not only of being illegal but of
having taken part in the revolt, was divested of its functions
by the Government and replaced, on 15 January 1945, by a
new Provisional Executive, composed exclusively of members
of the Reformist trade union movement.
It was clear that, in the political atmosphere of the time,
it would be impossible to reconstruct a united trade union
movement without the intervention of some conciliatory body
which was in a position to take a disinterested view of the
conflict.
Intervention by the British Trades Union Congress and the
World Federation of Trade Unions
A delegation of the British Trades Union Congress (T.U.C.),
and later of the World Federation of Trade Unions, undertook
this work of conciliation, and a whole series of agreements
between the various Greek trade union movements were in fact
concluded under their auspices.
The main heads of these agreements must be specified below,
firstly because they appeared to offer every possible preliminary
guarantee to the various parties concerned, and secondly
because all the Acts and ministerial decisions concerning the
reconstruction of the Greek trade union movement were directly
based upon them.

226

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The first of these agreements—generally known as the
Citrine Agreement—was concluded on 29 January 1945between
the Provisional Executive (Reformist) of the General Confederation of Labour and the representatives of the former Executive. This agreement provided, inter alia :
(a) that elections should be held in accordance both with
legislation in force before 4 August 1936 (pre-dictatorship) and with
the rules in force on that date, in order to guarantee the free expression of the wishes of the workers and the free choice of their representatives (clauses 1 and 2) ;
(b) that in order to ensure an equitable application of the
preceding clauses, the elections were to be held under the supervision of the judicial authorities by judges appointed by the High
Court (clause 3) ;
(c) that a committee composed of a representative of the existing Provisional Executive, a representative of the previous Provisional Executive and a representative of the T.U.C, was to supervise
the elections (clause 4) ;
(d) that the Provisional Executive was to undertake to hold
elections in Athens and Piraeus, before 15 February, in twenty
organisations in each of these towns (clause 5) ;
(e) that elections were also to be held in other towns as soon
as they passed under Government control (clause 6) ;
(f)

that in the event of the existing abnormal situation coming

to an end, the Provisional Executive of the General Confederation
of Labour was to be reorganised by general agreement in such a way
as to represent all the tendencies of all the workers. Once these
conditions were fulfilled, fresh elections were to take place in all
Greek trade union organisations (clause 7).
The agreement added that the Minister of Labour had
taken cognisance of its provisions and agreed, on behalf of
the Government, to take all the necessary legal measures to
assure workers both the right of voting and the right of
eligibility.
A second agreement—known as the Tewson Agreement—concluded on 25 February 1945 between the same parties,
while confirming the preceding agreement, supplemented it
by several further clauses concerning the elections and the
reorganisation of the Provisional Executive.
Under clause 2, the Minister of Labour, who was responsible for the appointment of the Provisional Executive, was
to proceed to reorganise the Executive in accordance with
clause 7 of the Citrine Agreement quoted above, and after
consultation with the two parties concerned.
Under clause 4, the parties agreed to recognise that it was
necessary to hold elections so that the question of the manage-

THE TRADE UNION

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227

ment of the trade unions could be settled by the Greek trade
union movement itself. Each one of the parties represented
on the supervisory commission for the elections provided
for in clause 4 of the Citrine Agreement was to undertake to
continue in all circumstances to collaborate with the British
and other representatives on the commission until the elections
had actually taken place.
Under the third agreement, dated 29 February 1945 and
known as the Feather Agreement, the parties agreed to the
composition of the new Provisional Executive of the Confederation, which had been established in the meantime, comprising
21 members, of whom 11 belonged to the Reformist group,
4 to the Socialist group, 4 to the Communist group and 2
to the Trade Union (Revolutionary) group.
The parties also agreed to ask the Minister of Labour to
introduce by legislative means a system of proportional representation in the trade union organisations and to amend the rules
of the trade unions to this effect. They agreed also to abstain
from all criticism, by demonstrations or otherwise, until the
convocation of the Congress. Any charges concerning a violation
of the agreement were to be considered in common and decisions
were to be taken by a majority vote.
Finally, the reconstruction of the Executive of the General
Confederation of Labour was to involve the reconstruction,
on the same plan, of all trade union organisations, from top to
bottom, by means of an agreement between all the parties
concerned, both in the interests of trade union unity and with
a view to making proper preparations for the elections.
The fourth agreement—also known as the Feather Agreement—concluded on 26 June 1945, provided that the Provisional Executive, reconstructed as shown above, should take
all necessary measures to enable the Trade Union Congress
to meet on 10 September 1945 at latest. In the event of the
Congress not being able to meet at this date, the Provisional
Executive would be automatically divested of its functions
and replaced by a new Executive, consisting also of 21 members
proposed by the workers' centres of Athens, Piraeus, Salónica,
Volo and Patras, whose sole duty would be to convene the
Congress at the earliest possible date.
Lastly it should be mentioned that, on 2 December 1945,
all the various tendencies of the Greek trade union movement
met in conference under the chairmanship of Mr. Louis Saillant,

228

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

General Secretary of the W.F.T.U., assisted by Mr. V. Feather,
representing the British Trades Union Congress, and Mr. A.
Verret, head of the office of the Secretary-General of the
W.F.T.U., and concluded an agreement by which they undertook :
(1) to accept and respect the results of the elections undertaken in order to reconstruct the unity of the Greek Confederation of Labour ;
(2) to reconstitute each one of the organisations constituting
the Greek General Confederation of Labour on the basis of a
democratic régime ensuring free representation, free discussion,
freely agreed discipline, and the responsibility of the leaders
of the trade union movement to their meetings and congresses ;
(3) to work for the adoption, at a national congress of
the Greek trade unions, to be organised on 1 March 1946 by
the leaders chosen at the forthcoming elections, of the rules
of the Greek General Confederation of Labour, in accordance
with the main, fundamental trade union principles contained
in the Charter of the W.F.T.U. ;
(4) as an immediate measure, to withdraw without delay
any protests which might have been formulated against the
provisions of Decision No. 24792 of the Greek Minister of Labour \
in order to make it possible to appoint the leaders of the Greek
General Confederation of Labour ; and
(5) to undertake to submit to the decisions of a delegation
consisting of four representatives of the W.F.T.U., whose
duty it would be to consider and settle any detailed protest
which might exist concerning individual elections for certain
local trade unions.
As a result of this series of preliminary agreements freely
entered into between the various trade union tendencies, all
possible guarantees seemed to have been taken for ensuring
the reconstruction of the Greek trade union movement on a
really democratic basis.
It then became necessary to ensure that these agreements
would be implemented by legislation.
Legislative Action
Along with these attempts at reconciling the various parties
through the medium of the T.U.C, and the W.F.T.U., there
1

See below, p. 233.

T H E TRADE UNION

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229

was an attempt to reconstruct the trade union movement by
legislative means.
The first measure which should be mentioned in this connection was the Varkiza Agreement (from the name of the place
where it was signed), which was concluded between the leaders
of the rebellion and the Government with a view to putting an
end to the civil war in the country.
This Agreement was ratified by a Constitutional Act of
20 March 1945 S section 5 of which deals with the question of
freedom of association and of meeting. This section is as follows :
The Government, which, as the result of the insurrection, has
been compelled to proclaim martial law, declares its readiness to
revoke the proclamation of martial law as soon as the general pacification which is expected to be the result of the present meeting
is an assured fact. It also undertakes to grant all citizens the fundamental right of free meeting and of free association as laid down in the
Constitution and in existing legislation.
By " existing legislation " is meant legislation previous to the
dictatorship of General Metaxas, and particularly legislation concerning the free election of the executive committees of trade unions and
of the General Confederation of Labour, in accordance with those
regulations which ensure the workers the absolute right of free elections and leave the Government no power to intervene in an arbitrary manner in the trade union affairs of wage earners.
This same principle has been laid down in the minutes of the
latest conference between the representatives of the2 British trade
unions and the representatives of the Greek workers.
Thus the agreements concluded between the various trade
union tendencies in Greece were reinforced by an agreement
between the Government and the leaders of the rebellion.
The second legislative measure which had to be taken was
the putting into force, by its insertion in the Government
Gazette, of the Act of 31 October 1942 for restoring trade union
liberties, mentioned above. 3
In virtue of these provisions, the Government acquired
the necessary powers to settle all practical matters which
might be raised as a result of the re-establishment of trade
union liberties. As a result of the wide devolution of powers
provided for in section 4 of the Act in question, the Government
took a whole series of measures for the purpose of giving effect
to the agreements concluded between the various trade union
tendencies and thus reconstructing a free trade union movement.
1
2

Cf. Government Gazette, 23 March 1945.
Cf. the Citrine Agreement, cited above, p. 226.
3
See p. 223.

230

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The then Minister of Labour (Mr. Zakkas) began by setting
up, in accordance with the Feather Agreement, a supervisory
commission, composed of a high official of the Ministry of
Labour, a representative of the Reformist trade union tendency,
and a representative of the extreme Left, under the chairmanship
of Mr. Feather, the representative of the T.U.C.
In a series of communiqués, this commission formulated
the conditions under which the trade union elections should
take place. Thus, in order to prevent any plurality in voting,
communiqué No. 2 laid down that each worker should have
only one vote in the union for his occupation and, in order
to guarantee the strict observance of this principle, the
supervisory committee was to check the registers of the unions,
and to identify members who had the right to vote by
stamping the identity card of each elector, thus making it impossible for him to vote in the election for any other trade union.
In its communiqué No. 10, the commission made it clear
that the elections could not be considered valid unless the
quorum required by trade union law, and explained earlier in
this chapter 1 , were observed. In view of the possibility that
one of its members might not continue to be present, and that
it might therefore not be able to carry its supervisory work
to its conclusion, the commission let it be known that no
representation could be considered valid if the elections were
not held in accordance with the existing trade union laws and
the current rules, and with the decisions of the supervisory
commission, in particular those concerning the calling of general
meetings, the constitution of supervisory committees, electoral
procedure, etc. Finally, the commission stated that elections
which failed to conform with these regulations would be contrary
to the Citrine Agreement and should be considered as null
and void.
An Act of 9 June 1945 (No. 393) 2, issued in application of
the Act concerning the re-establishment of trade union liberties,
authorised the Ministry of Labour to reconstruct, by Ministerial
Order alone, the Provisional Executive of the General Confederation of Labour and to define its competence with a view to
establishing orderly administration within the Confederation,
the trade unions and the federations of trade unions. The same
1
2

See p. 216.
Cf. Government Gazette, 21 June 1945.

THE TRADE UNION

SITUATION

231

Ministerial Order was to fix the time-limit—six months at
most—within which the Provisional Executive was to complete
its work or, if this proved impossible, was to consider what
measures should in that case be taken.
Under the terms of the Act, the Minister was not entitled
to exercise this power more than once.
The Ministerial Decision issued in virtue of this Legislative
Decree, dated 3 July 1945 (No. 12848) S re-established a Provisional Executive in accordance with the Feather Agreement
between the various trade union tendencies, and instructed
it to restore " order within the trade unions " and to organise
elections, in accordance with the laws and rules in force before
the dictatorship, with a view to choosing the administrative
organs of the trade unions, of the trade union federations in
general, and of the Greek General Confederation of Labour.
With this end in view, the Provisional Executive was, as
soon as possible, to replace the executive committees of all the
federations and unions of trade unions which had not yet
conformed to the agreement between the four trade union
tendencies, and to appoint in each of these organisations a
provisional committee of between ten and fourteen members,
of whom two were to belong to the former elected committee
and the remainder would be divided between the four trade
union tendencies.
If by 20 September 1945 it had been found impossible to
elect a permanent Executive of the General Confederation, the
Provisional Executive was to cease to exist from 21 September,
unless, by a decision taken by five sevenths of the members, and
communicated to the Minister of Labour, it considered it imperative to prolong its existence with a view to finishing its work
within a maximum time-limit of forty days.
Thus the law fully confirmed the agreements entered into
between the parties directly concerned.
The Provisional Executive unanimously decided to set up,
in eleven workers' centres, committees representative of all
existing tendencies. Orders were sent to this effect, bearing
the signature of the representatives of the four tendencies.
According, however, to the memorandum published by the
Minister of Labour, mentioned above 2 , it would seem that not all
the workers' centres in the provinces carried out the order.
1
2

Cf. Government Gazette, 3 July 1945, Part II.
See p. 222, footnote 1.

232

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Certain local committees which, under the terms of existing
agreements, should have been reconstructed on the lines of
the Provisional Executive of the Greek General Confederation
of Labour proceeded at once to hold elections and to confirm
themselves in their position. Numerous irregularities, particularly concerning plurality of voting and the quorum, were
alleged to have taken place, and in many provincial industrial
centres the Reformist workers abstained from taking part in
the elections. 1
However that may be, the time-limit fixed by the Ministerial Decision (20 September 1945) expired before orderly
administration had been re-established in the trade unions.
It should be remembered that, according to the terms of
the Legislative Decree of 9 June 1945, the Minister of Labour
was entitled to take once only, by simple ministerial decision,
measures to regulate any practical questions which might arise
as the result of the re-establishment of trade union liberty.
It therefore became essential to renew this authorisation.
This was the subject of several Legislative Decrees, dated respectively 29 September 1945 2, 22 October 19453, 8 December
1945 4 and 16 January 1946.5
According to the Legislative Decree of 29 September 1945,
the Minister of Labour may, by decisions issued within ten
days of the publication of the Decree in the Government Gazette
regulate afresh, in part or in whole, the questions referred to
in the Act of 9 June 1945, and may extend the time-limit
therein specified by four months at most.
The Legislative Decree of 22 October 1945 extended these
time-limits for another fortnight. It also provided that the
judges should take part in the elections and also in the meetings
entrusted with the duty of electing supervisory committees
of trade unions or of trade union federations, and should also
take all necessary measures to ensure that the elections would
be held according to the provisions of the Act on associations,
and according to the rules of the trade unions themselves.
Furthermore, by decision of the Minister of Labour, the judges
might be entrusted with the duty of taking all necessary steps to
1
2
8
4
5

Op. cit., p p . 14 et seq.
Cf. Government Gazette, 29 September 1945.
Idem, 22 October 1945.
Idem, 8 December 1945.
Idem, 16 J a n u a r y 1946.

THE TRADE UNION SITUATION

233

ensure the proper conduct of elections and to set up or
to complete the provisional executives of the trade union
federations.
A further Ministerial Decision, dated 23 October 1945 (No.
24792) \ taken in pursuance of this authorisation, set up a
new Provisional Executive of the Greek General Confederation
of Labour, with the duty of organising regular elections as soon
as possible.
According to the first Feather Agreement, cited above2,
the previous Provisional Executive was to be automatically
relieved of its functions if it did not succeed in convening the
Congress within a time-limit of six months, and was to be
replaced by a new Executive consisting of an equal number
of members proposed by the workers' centres of Athens, Piraeus,
Salónica, Volo and Patras.
The new Executive of the General Confederation was composed of four secretaries representing the four main tendencies,
each assuming in turn the duties of secretary-general for a month,
and of eleven other members elected on the system of proportional representation by the executives of the trade unions
of Athens and Piraeus, established by elections duly confirmed
by the judiciary.
Careful provisions were laid down in the ministerial decision
both in order to guarantee the bona fides of these elections and to
ensure a proper representation of minorities in all circumstances.
The provisional executives of the workers' centres, the
trade union federations and the trade unions were to be
reorganised on the same lines, as well as the new supervisory
committees, on which the four main tendencies were to be
duly represented.
Finally, new elections were to take place, at latest within
fifty days, in all cases where the preceding elections had not
been considered valid.
After these new elections a Pan-Hellenic Trade Union
Congress was to meet on 18 March 1946 at latest, to elect a
permanent Executive of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour. 3
1

Cf. Government Gazette, 23 October 1945, Vol. II, No. 153.
See p. 227.
3
This decision (No. 24792) was supplemented by a decision
of 28 December 1945 extending the time-limit for the reconstruction
of the Provisional Executive of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour.
16
2

234

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

It will be noted that, in accordance with a previous agreement between the various trade union tendencies, the new
provisional executives, both of the Greek General Confederation
of Labour and of the local organisations, were no longer composed solely of representatives chosen by the Minister of Labour,
but also of representatives elected under a system of proportional
representation.
The Ministerial Decision of 23 October 1945, which, as will
be seen later, was to be the subject of an appeal to the Council
of State, was followed by the Legislative Decree of 8 December
1945 containing an " authentic interpretation " of the Legislative Decree of 9 June 1.945. This Decree gave legal sanction
to the method of appointing the members of the new Provisional
Executive of the Confederation by providing that the Minister
of Labour might proceed to reconstruct the Provisional Executive by ministerial decisions, again by means of elections,
and might also prescribe the general organisation of the
elections and in particular the distribution of seats.
Finally, a Legislative Decree of 16 January 1946 laid down
that the ministerial decisions published after the expiry of the
time-limits fixed in the Legislative Decrees issued in 1945 were
legally valid.
Eighth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress
Thus, new elections were to take place in all the workers'
centres where the previous elections had been denounced as
invalid or considered as such by the supervisory commission
under the chairmanship of Mr. Feather.
The bona fides of these new elections were once more contested by an important proportion of the trade union movement,
but apparently without the legislative provisions concerning
the invalidity of elections 1 being invoked, and without any
appeal to the courts to pronounce on the validity of the elections.
The principal complaints against the elections, according
to the memorandum published by the Ministry of Labour on
10 August 1946 2, immediately after the dissolution of the
Committee of the General Confederation elected by the PanHellenic Trade Union Congress, were as follows :
1

See above, p . 216.
Cf. Notes on the Memorandum of the W.F.T.U. concerning
Action Prejudicial to Greek Trade Union Organisations, op. cit.
2

Alleged

THE TRADE UNION

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235

. . . New elections were not organised in all centres where the
previous ones had been contrary to agreements or to the law or where
abstentions of other tendencies on a large scale had been noted.
. . . It is true that new elections took place in eight workers'
centres (Salónica, Verria, etc.) but these were on the same lines as
the previous ones. At Athens and Piraeus, when the conduct of
the elections was checked, several violations of the regulations were
noted, chiefly relating to the legal provisions concerning the
quorum. Furthermore, it has been alleged that measures were not
always taken to identify electors, as prescribed by the supervisory
commission, in order to ascertain whether or no the elector was a
member of the trade union for which he was voting. The consequence
of this was that several persons voted more than once, and the
results thus obtained cannot be considered as expressing the incontestable will of the working classes.
The workers of the nationalist workers' bloc, who, as was noted
on several occasions, constituted a majority, protested energetically
and, while denouncing the abuses which had been brought to light,
abstained from voting.
The arrival of Mr. Saillant, Secretary-General of the W.F.T.U.,
gave rise to hopes of a solution. He was made acquainted with
the objects of the nationalist bloc. He promised to send a delegation of
the W.F.T.U. during January 1946 to consider the facts advanced and
to clear up the position before the convocation of the Pan-Hellenic
Trade Union Congress, which, in these circumstances, was fixed by
mutual agreement for 1 March 1946. 1
This commission of enquiry promised by the W.F.T.U. did
not arrive.
The nationalist organisations continued their protests against
the intrigues of the extreme Left and denounced the violation of
the agreement concluded under the auspices of Mr. Saillant. They
finally decided to abstain from these elections . . . and to take no
further part in the Congress.
The Eighth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress met a t
Athens from 1 to 7 March 1946. According to the organisers of
t h e Congress, t h e delegates taking part in it represented 258,000
t r a d e union members. 2
A permanent Executive Committee of t h e Greek General
Confederation of Labour was elected on t h e system of proportional representation, and several seats were reserved for
t h e Reformist tendency.
At t h e end of t h e Congress, a declaration, signed by t h e
officers of t h e Congress and by the representatives of t h e
French, British and Russian t r a d e union movements who had
attended, was adopted as follows :

1
2

See above, p. 228, for the text of this agreement.
This figure has been contested by the Reformist bloc.

236

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The undersigned, being the officers of the Eighth Congress
of the Greek General Confederation of Labour and the delegation
of the W.F.T.U. which came to Greece with the special mission of
considering the legality of the composition and conduct of the
Congress, declare as follows :
The composition and conduct of the Eighth Congress of the
Greek General Confederation of Labour, held at Athens from 1 to
7 March 1946, have been entirely in accordance with the laws in
force and with the rules of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour, and according to the directives given by the World Federation of Trade Unions.
Consequently, the decisions of this Congress are such as to
express the will of the working class in Greece, and the Executive.
of the Greek General Confederation of Labour elected by this Congress is considered to be the only legal Executive.
Finally, the Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress adopted
certain amendments to the rules of the Greek Confederation of
Labour which the newly elected Executive submitted for
approval to the Athens court of first instance, in accordance with the legislation analysed above. 1
By decision of 7 May 1946 (No. 2825/1946), the court,
considering " that the amendments introduced into the rules
of the organisation entitled 'Greek General Confederation of
Labour ' are legal and made in accordance with the legal provisions in force ", accepted the application of the Executive
and ordered that the rules should be published and inserted in
the Register of Associations. By this action, the court recognised the validity of the new rules of the Greek General Confederation of Labour.
Intervention of the Council of State
Earlier in this chapter reference was made to the conditions
under which the validity of trade union elections or the decisions
of a trade union meeting could be contested. Article 101 of
the Civil Code provides inter alia that any decision of a general
meeting contrary to the law or to the rules of the association
is null and void. Nevertheless, its annulment can be pronounced
only by a court of law as the result of an action brought either
by a dissenting member or by any other person legitimately
concerned.
Article 101 of the Civil Code fixes a six months' time-limit
within which a decision taken by a general meeting can be
^ e e p. 217.

THE TRADE UNION SITUATION

237

contested. A verdict of invalidity is valid against all opposition.
The effect of these provisions is that only the regular courts,
and not the Executive Power, can invalidate either elections
or the decisions of a general meeting.
It has already been shown, however, that the persons
concerned did not resort to this normal judicial procedure,
which is of course long and uncertain, since proof of the illegality
of the elections would have had to be established for all the
trade unions in the country.
Consequently, the parties concerned preferred to have
recourse to the Council of State for the purpose of annulling
the ministerial decisions in virtue of which the elections had
been held. In their view, the invalidation of these decisions
would automatically involve the invalidity of all the elections
and therefore the removal of the Executive recently elected
by the Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress.
The decision of the Council of State was published on
29 May 1946 (No. 885/1946) and was arrived at as the result of
long discussions, in the course of which the whole situation
de fado and de jure of the trade union movement was examined
in great detail. The decision is not only of great importance
in itself, since it led to the dismissal of the Executive elected
by the Congress but, as will be seen later, it also has a very
considerable bearing on the future of the trade union movement
in Greece. It will therefore be useful to analyse it in some
detail.
The appeal against the decisions of the Minister of Labour
dated 23 October and 28 December 1945, summarised above,
was based mainly on the following charges : (1) violation of
Article 11 of the Constitution ; (2) exceeding of legislative
authorisation ; (3) improper use of such authorisation ; and
(4) abuse of authority.
Before examining the matter in substance, the Council of
State pronounced first on the question whether the appeal was
admissible in law, an admissibility which had been contested
by the defendants, in particular on account of : (1) the nature
of the acts under dispute ; (2) the absence of any legitimate
interest on the part of the defendants ; and (3) the expiry of
the legal time-limit prescribed for the bringing of an action.
The Council of State, after referring to the series of agreements between the four main trade union tendencies, entered

238

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

into under the auspices of t h e British Trades Union Congress
and the World Federation of Trade Unions—agreements of
which t h e Minister of Labour had been informed and which
he had undertaken on behalf of t h e Government t o implement—
declared t h a t all these factors were not sufficient to give an
intergovernmental character to these acts.
The agreements concluded between persons who are endowed
with a public mandate (plenipotentiaries), and who are acting on
behalf of contracting countries, can alone be considered as international agreements. Now in the case in question, the foreigners who
helped the Government in the preparatory stages and in the execution
of the disputed acts were not plenipotentiaries and were not acting
on behalf of their State, but on behalf of organisations which
despite their influence on economic and social life, both national
and international, are none the less private organisations, whose
actions in no way bind any country, nor do they result in the concluding of any obligation recognised by international law. Consequently, the contention that appeal to the Council of State is unacceptable because of the intergovernmental character of the Acts
under dispute must be rejected as being without foundation.
The Council of State then rejected t h e argument t h a t t h e
appeal was unacceptable because, under t h e Saillant Agreement
of 2 December 1945, mentioned above 1 , t h e representatives of
t h e four main tendencies of t h e t r a d e union movement h a d
given their approval in regard t o t h e m a t t e r s decided by t h e
first of the ministerial decisions under dispute, and had furthermore undertaken to withdraw t h e appeal which t h e y had
lodged against these decisions. The decision of t h e Council of
State proceeds :
An agreement of this nature involving a formal acceptance of
the ministerial decisions may bind the organisations which are
parties to it—and this, under existing legislation, would be a reason
for unacceptability—but the case is not the same with regard to
the disputing of the act by " physical persons ", even if such persons
belong to the parties which have accepted the decision.
The acceptance of a decision by the organisations involves for
their members a purely moral commitment, and the fact of not
conforming to the decision constitutes merely a violation of this
moral commitment which may entail sanctions within the organisation itself, from which sanctions the person can escape by withdrawing from the organisation. In other words, the law does not
regulate the legal bond between members and their political organisations in such a way as to preclude such members from pursuing
through legal channels an appeal for the cancellation of administrative acts which may have been accepted by the organisation to
1

See p. 228.

T H E TRADE UNION SITUATION

239

which they belong. In the case under review, the first of the ministerial decisions under dispute has been approved among others by
the leader of the National Reformist tendency, a tendency to which
the appellant belongs. Nevertheless, such a relation between the
appellant and the organisation does not entail for him a legal
obligation to abstain from disputing the administrative decisions
accepted by his organisation, but only a moral obligation to do so.
The decision of the Council of State said that, furthermore,
the appellant was a member of the Typesetters' Union and had,
as a result, a legitimate interest not only in the legal and harmonious functioning of the trade union to which he belonged,
but also in that of the central organisation of trade unions to
which his union was affiliated. He had, therefore, a legitimate
interest in urging the repeal of the administrative actions
which seemed to him to constitute a violation of the Constitution and of trade union legislation.
On the subject of the time-limit for bringing an appeal, the
Council of State declared that the appeal under judgment
was lodged within the prescribed time-limit only as regards
the second of the Acts under dispute, dated 28 December 1945.
But, it added, as this second Act contained a provision extending the time-limits laid down in the first Act, dated 23 October
1945, the two Acts must be considered as forming a whole and
the appeal could therefore be regarded as having been submitted within the stipulated time-limit.
After rejecting the pleas put forward by the defendants,
the Council of State proceeded to deal with the substance of
the question. It began by giving an authoritative interpretation
of Article 11 of the Constitution, previously quoted.
According to the decision of the Council of State,
this Article gives complete freedom to the legislature to settle all
problems concerning the organisation and activities of associations,
on condition, however, that the provisions of the laws on this subject
do not violate the two explicit guarantees contained in the Constitution, namely : (1) that the establishment and dissolution of associations shall never be made dependent on previous authorisation
by the Executive Power ; and (2) that the legislature is bound by
the tacit but clearly implied restriction in Article 11 of the Constitution, not to limit freedom of association in such a way as to
diminish or neutralise it.
Furthermore, in view of the fact that freedom to create an
association is inconceivable without the freedom for its members
to govern it, any intervention by the administrative authorities
which substantially hinders the free election of the administrative
organs of associations would in principle constitute a serious restriction on freedom of association, such as is forbidden by the Constitution.

240

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The Council of State conceded, however, t h a t , in exceptional
circumstances, t h e Executive Power might intervene to settle
questions concerning t h e administration and activities of
associations if their influence, and particularly t h a t of t r a d e
union organisations, on t h e economic and social situation was
such t h a t t h e State could not remain indifferent to exceptional
events likely substantially to prejudice t h e normal functioning
of the organisations in question. The decision continued :
Nevertheless, such intervention on the part of the State may
not exceed the requirements of the state of emergency and may
not exceed what is necessary to maintain the union in existence.
In particular, Government intervention may not go so far as to
influence the appointment of executives of the unions since these
must, in accordance with their rules, be the expression of the free
will of their members.
In view, however, of the fact that for many years the constititutional guarantee of freedom of association was suspended,
which had the result of a systematic interference by the State in
the appointment of the executives of associations, and particularly
of trade unions, it must be admitted that an exceptional situation
did in fact exist which justified the intervention of the State with
a view to restoring trade union liberties. This was the object of
the Act of 31 October 1942 published in London and inserted in the
Government Gazette of 25 May 1945. x Such intervention, however,
is permissible only within the limits prescribed above, beyond which
it must be considered to be contrary to Article 11 of the Constitution.
This restriction on State intervention with a view to restoring trade
union rights was expressed in the Constitutional Act of 20 March
1945 ratifying the Varkiza Agreement. 2
It may clearly be seen from these texts that the right of the
State to intervene in order to restore trade union liberties, acknowledged in principle in exceptional circumstances, is limited to the
right to restore the legal régime as it existed before 4 August 1936,
and that any further intervention changing such régime for the
worse and involving the interference of the Executive Power in the
appointment of the executives of trade union organisations . . .
should be forbidden. For these reasons, and in virtue of these texts,
and within the limits fixed by Article 11 of the Constitution as
defined above, the Executive Power was bound not to place any
obstacle in the way of the free functioning of the legal régime in
force before 4 August 1936 and not in any way to hinder elections
held in accordance with rules in force before 4 August 1936, for
the appointment of executives, either of trade unions or of workers'
centres or of industry federations, or of the Greek General Confederation of Labour.
Any attempt on the part of the State to influence elections either
by changing the electoral system provided for in the rules, or by
appointing the members of executives of unions under whose
supervision the said elections were to take place, must be considered as being forbidden.
1
2

See above, pp. 211 and 223.
See above, p. 229.

THE TRADE UNION SITUATION

241

Thus t h e various measures, recommended by t h e parties
actually concerned, in order t h a t t h e elections might be held with
a m a x i m u m of guarantees, such as t h e establishment of the
system of proportional representation and t h e constitution
of supervisory committees for t h e elections, were deemed to be
contrary to t h e Constitution and to existing legislation.
Particular interest attaches to the passage in t h e decision
of t h e Council of State which defined t h e extreme limits of any
possible Government intervention :
The only intervention which might be considered as justified
by exceptional circumstances would be the appointment of a Provisional Executive of the General Confederation of Labour to deal
with urgent financial and administrative questions, with a view to
safeguarding trade union interests, until such time as a permanent
Executive could be elected in accordance with the rules and laws
in force before 4 August 1936, and also the supervision of elections
by a judge, as provided in constitutional form by the Act of 24
February 1945. 1
The last p a r t of t h e decision enumerated t h e charges made
by t h e Council of State against t h e ministerial decisions under
dispute, and concluded t h a t these decisions were invalid.
In virtue of the two ministerial decisions under dispute, an
Executive of the Greek General Federation of Labour was appointed.
This consisted of four secretaries appointed by name by the decisions
under dispute, who were regarded as the leaders of the four main
trade union trends, i.e., Communist, Socialist, Socialist-Syndicalist
and National Reformist, and of eleven more members elected by
a meeting of the executives of the unions legally elected belonging
to the workers' centres of Athens and Piraeus, under a new system
of representation which gave, as a matter of privilege, one seat to
each of the four tendencies, and a maximum of four seats to a
single tendency.
Furthermore, the ministerial decisions under
dispute provided that the Provisional Executive of the General
Confederation of Labour should appoint provisional committees
in the trade unions, the workers' centres and the federations,
composed of members appointed by each one of the secretaries
referred to above, in a number proportionate to the composition
of the Provisional Executive of the General Confederation of Labour.
Finally, the ministerial decisions prescribed that the provisional
executives of the workers' centres should, in all the occupational
organisations for which legal elections have not been held, appoint
supervisory committees of four members representing each one of
the four tendencies referred to above, with a view to supervising
the elections.
1
This Act provides that elections in occupational organisations
must, under pain of being invalidated, be held under the control of a
supervisory committee (as provided for in the rules) presided over by a
judge.

242

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

From all these provisions of the two decisions under dispute,
it follows that the Executive Power, on the one hand, did not confine
itself to the constitutionally permissible measures of intervention
in the matter of the appointment of the Provisional Executive of
the General Confederation of Labour, but rather burdened the
Executive with functions outside its normal competence, and that,
on the other hand, it intervened in the appointment of executives
of the workers' centres and trade unions, by appointing members
of these organisations to supervise the elections. The system of
appointing executives (which should constitute the expression of
the free will of all the members) was thus arbitrarily modified, and
thus Article 11 of the Constitution and also the Constitutional Act
of 20 March 1945 ratifying the Varkiza Agreement were violated.
Such violation cannot be covered by the Act of 9 June 1945x which
authorised the Minister of Labour to take the decisions under dispute.
In other words, this Act, which confers rjowers on the Executive
Power which go beyond the limits fixed by the Constitution, as
defined above, must be considered as being unconstitutional.
The decision of the Council of State concluded that, for
all the reasons given above, the two ministerial decisions under
which the elections were held were invalid.
SECOND ATTEMPT TO RECONSTRUCT THE TRADE UNION
MOVEMENT

Removal of the Executive of the Greek General
Confederation of Labour from Office
The decision of the Council of State summarised above
confined itself to invalidating the ministerial decisions under
which the elections had been organised, but abstained from
pronouncing on the validity of these elections and, in addition,
from pronouncing on the validity of decisions taken by the
Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress.
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that diametrically opposite views were taken—and still continue to be taken
—on the real meaning of the decision of the Council of State.
In order to be as impartial as possible, the arguments on either
side will now be briefly summarised.
The Executive of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour, elected at the Congress of March 1946, maintained the
view that, under the existing legislation on trade unions,
previously described, only the regular judges had the power
either to invalidate elections or to annul any decisions which
might be deemed to be contrary to the laws and rules in force.
1

See above, p. 230.

THE TRADE UNION

SITUATION

243

Now, no appeal for t h e invalidation of t h e elections or for
t h e annulment of t h e decisions of t h e Congress had been brought
before t h e ordinary Courts within the prescribed time-limits,
and therefore t h e elected Executive considered itself t h e sole
legal representative of t h e Confederation.
The opposite view was t a k e n by t h e Legal Council of t h e
Government (a consultative body of t h e Government composed of legal experts), which the t h e n Minister of Labour
(Mr. Stratos) had consulted as to the action to be taken to give
effect t o t h e decisions of t h e Council of State. The arguments
advanced by t h e Legal Council m a y be summarised as follows :
All elections, whether held in the trade unions themselves or in
their federations, must be considered null and void if the supervision
of such elections was entrusted to administrative committees
established either directly as a result of the decision of the Minister
of Labour, now invalidated by the Council of State, or by the Executive of the General Confederation of Labour set up by such decisions, and not to supervisory committees under the presidency of
a judge, set up by the trade union rules in force before the dictatorship.
Furthermore, the resolutions of general meetings must be
considered as invalid in all cases where such meetings were convened
by persons not competent to convene them.
The technical flaws in the resolutions passed by such general
meetings are of such a nature that they invalidate the resolutions
passed.
The logical consequence of the illegality of the general meetings
and the invalidity of the elections is that the Executive Power
regains its full freedom and may act as if the election had never
taken place, and without being required to await the promulgation
of a verdict of invalidity. . .
The decisions of the Council of State are, under Greek legislation,
self-executory, and an administrative act which has been invalidated
by such means at once ceases to be operative without the necessity
of replacing it by another act of the Executive Power.
According to section 50 of Act No. 3713 of 1928 on the Council
of State, the Minister is required to give effect to a decision of the
Council of State under pain of the sanctions (fines) provided in
Article 487 of the Penal Code.
This obligation on the part of the Minister follows from the
principle that the decisions of the Council of State bind the Executive
Power, which is compelled to put them into force.
As a result of this consultation, t h e then Minister of Labour
took a series of decisions which, as will be seen later, were to
form t h e subject of a further appeal t o the Council of State.
B y Decision No. 27985, of 25 J u l y 1946, t h e Minister of
L a b o u r invited t h e Secretary-General of t h e General Confederation of Labour, and t h e other members of t h e Executive elected

244

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

by the Pan-Hellenic Trade. Union Congress, to resign within
48 hours, in accordance with the decision of the Council of State.
When the elected Executive refused to resign within the timelimit prescribed in the Order, the Minister, by Decision No.
28525 of 29 July 1946, ordered various officials of the Ministry
of Labour to take possession of the offices and archives of the
General Confederation of Labour. Finally, by Decision No.
28560 of 30 July 1946, the Minister, acting under sections 32
and 33 of the 1914 Act on Associations, under Decision
No. 885/46 of the Council of State, and under section 50 of the
1928 Act (No. 3713) concerning the Council of State, appointed
a new Provisional Executive and entrusted this Executive with
the duty of proceeding as soon as possible to hold elections in
accordance with the rules and laws in force!
It may be noted that the new Provisional Executive was
composed of 21 members, of whom 5 belonged to the
extreme Left tendency.
At this juncture the W.F.T.U. delegated its Vice-President,
Mr. Léon Jouhaux, to Athens on 26 July 1946 to investigate
the trade union situation and, if possible, to bring the parties
to an agreement.

With this end in view, Mr. J o u h a u x had a

number of interviews with the Prime Minister, who was also
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with the Ministers of Labour
and Justice, the administrative and judicial authorities, and
the representatives of the various trade union tendencies.
However, this attempt to find a last-minute settlement was
doomed to failure in the face of accomplished facts. 1
Second Intervention of the Council of State
The Secretary-General of the elected Executive of the
General Confederation of Labour, which had been divested of
its functions by the decisions referred to above, appealed to
the Council of State against these three ministerial decisions,
both in his individual capacity and on behalf of the Greek
General Confederation of Labour.
The Council of State refused to recognise the appeal lodged
by the retiring Secretary-General on behalf of the General
1
For a brief account of Mr. Jouhaux's mission, see International
Labour Conference, 29th Session, Montreal, 1946 : Record of Proceedings
(Montreal, 1948), Third Part, Appendix I : " Fifth Report of the Credentials
Committee", pp. 287-295. See also the discussion on the Fifth Report
of the Credentials Committee, ibid., pp. 221-224 and 243-255.

THE TRADE UNION

SITUATION

245

Confederation of Labour, on t h e ground t h a t , since his expulsion,
dated 25 J u l y , he had lost t h e capacity legally to represent
t h e Confederation ; b u t it accepted t h e appeal lodged in his
personal capacity.
The Council of State rejected the appeals against t h e decisions of t h e Minister of Labour dated 25 and 29 J u l y 1946
ordering t h e expulsion of t h e elected Executive and t h e seizure
of t h e premises and archives of the General Confederation of
Labour, b u t admitted t h e appeal against t h e Ministerial Decision of 30 July, setting up a new Provisional Executive.
Below will be found those passages of t h e decision which
are of particular importance for the later development of t h e
t r a d e union movement.
In t h e first place, t h e Council of State confirmed t h e opinion
expressed by t h e Legal Council of the Government with regard
to t h e invalidity of t h e elections and of t h e decisions taken by
t h e Congress. It recalled t h e fact t h a t :
Under Article 101 of the Civil Code, any decision of a meeting
which is contrary to the laws or rules of the associations is null and
void ; but such invalidity must be pronounced by the Court on the
application of a dissenting member or any other person legitimately
concerned. Such an appeal must be lodged Within six months after
the adoption of the decision by the general meeting. A decision of
annulment is finally and completely binding.
It follows from this Article that the annulment of an illegal
decision is not automatic but must result from a specific decision
given by the competent court on the request of a person legitimately
concerned.
But, in the case under review, owing to the fact that the decision
(885/46) of the Council of State has invalidated the whole legal basis
of the elections, and having regard in particular to their unconstitutional nature, the elections themselves are completely null and void,
in accordance with the general principle of law that an invalidated
act has no legal effect even if it has not been annulled by a court.
Hence, any person, and more particularly the supervisory authority
responsible for the supervision of trade unions, may claim such invalidation. Furthermore, in view of the fact that, under section 50 of
the 1928 Act on the Council of State, the administrative authority
is not only required to give effect to the verdict of the Council of
State, but also to restore the status quo as it existed before the decision of annulment, it is for the administrative authorities . . . to
take the necessary administrative measures to give effect to the
decision of the Council of State.
The Council of State came to t h e conclusion t h a t t h e Minister
of Labour, in his capacity as t h e supreme supervisory authority
of t h e trade unions, and in accordance with t h e decision of t h e
Council of State, had, by his decisions of 25 and 29 J u l y 1946,

246

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

lawfully ordered the expulsion of the elected Executive of the
Greek General Confederation of Labour.
On the other hand, the Council of State held that the Minister
of Labour had no power to appoint a new Provisional Executive
to replace the Committee which had been divested of its functions. In this connection, it recalled the fact that, as the result
of its own decision (885/46), the authorisation which had been
given to the Minister of Labour, under section 4 of the Act of
31 October 1942, restoring trade union liberties x to settle all
questions which might arise as the result of the repeal of the
Act of 1938 on trade organisations, had ceased to exist, and
that no subsequent intervention by the Minister of Labour
could be justified by these texts.
The Council also rejected the argument of the Minister
based upon section 33 of the Associations Act of 1914. It will
be remembered that under this section the Minister of Labour
is empowered to relieve a trade union executive of its functions
and to appoint a provisional executive if it has been proved
that an infringement has been committed involving sanctions
under the Act in question, or if any serious administrative or
financial irregularity has been proved, of such a nature as to
involve sanctions under the Penal Code.
The decision of the Council of State declared that this
provision could not be applied in the case under review because
no lawfully elected committee had been divested of its functions
as the result of infringements involving penal sanctions.
Consequently the Minister of Labour had, under section 33
cited above, no power to substitute his own competence for
that of the judge as provided in Article 69 of the revised Civil
Code, which came into force under the Legislative Decree of
10 May 1946. This Article provides, as has been shown2, that the
president of the court of first instance is empowered to appoint
a provisional executive at the request of any person concerned
if the persons responsible for the administration are absent, or
if their interests are opposed to those of the association.
To the defence put forward by the Minister of Labour that,
by its decision No. 885/46, the Council of State had authorised
him in certain circumstances to appoint a Provisional Executive,
the new decision replied that this authorisation was valid only
for the period during which the Civil Code had not been put
1
2

See above, p. 224.
See above, p. 221.

T H E TRADE UNION

247

SITUATION

into force and during which there was no legislative provision
corresponding to that contained in Article 69.
For all these reasons, concluded the decision of the Council
of State, the Ministerial Decision of 30 July 1946 concerning
the appointment of the Provisional Executive must be considered null and void.
As the result of this second intervention of the Council of
State, the Greek trade union movement was once more deprived
of any kind of an Executive, even of a provisional character.
But at least the Council of State believed that it had found a
way out of past difficulties in entrusting to the president of
the court of first instance, and no longer to the Minister, the
delicate task of appointing a new Provisional Executive in
accordance with Article 69 of the recently enacted Civil Code.
In reality, as will be seen later, the political problem involved
in the appointment of an Executive for the General Confederation of Labour had not thereby been solved.
In point of fact, the president of the Athens court of first
instance shortly afterwards appointed a new Provisional
Executive—the seventh since the liberation. However, " on
the general unsuitability of the persons selected there was
unanimous agreement on the part of the tendencies taking part
in the negotiations. The balance between the tendencies was
indefensible and many of the persons actually appointed were
almost devoid of experience or representative character ". 1
An appeal was immediately lodged and within twenty-four
hours a stay of execution was granted until the end of June
1947, clearly in the hope that the direct negotiations which had
already been entered upon might result in an agreement that
the judge would be able purely and simply to approve.
The Resumption of Negotiations
The second phase of the negotiations was to occupy the
second half of 1946 and a great part of the year 1947. Although
the Labour Attachés of the United Kingdom and the United
States and the representatives of the British Trades Union
Congress, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the
American Federation of Labor took an active part in these
1

Cf.

TRADES

79th Annual
p. 201.

UNION

CONGRESS :

Report

of

Proceedings

Trade Union Congress, held at Southport

at

the

1-5 Sept. 1947,

248

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

negotiations, their combined efforts did not succeed in bringing
about the expected agreement. A brief summary is given below
of the various phases of these new negotiations.
The Tsaldaris-Braine

Agreement.

The first attempt at conciliation was made by Mr. W. Braine,
Labour Attaché at Rome, whom the British Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs specially seconded to Athens to undertake
negotiations with the various trade union tendencies and with
the Greek Government.
The negotiations took place under happy auspices, since
the then Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Tsaldaris, had, on 24
October 1946, made a statement to the press on the policy
which his Government proposed to follow in connection with the
trade union movement. The Prime Minister said, inter alia:
The workers' unions will shortly be in a position to hold new
elections under conditions and guarantees which will be universally
recognised as ensuring the absolutely free expression of the will
of the workers in order to produce executives for the direction of
the Greek trade union movement.
Moreover, the Government will introduce to Parliament legislation regarding trade unions which is in any case notable for its
liberal spirit. Freedom to associate for trade union purposes, and
especially the self-government of the organisations remote from all
Government intervention, will be fully strengthened by this legislation. The day is near when Greek trade unionism, which can
boast of tens of years of struggle, will occupy the position to which
it is entitled in the international trade union organisation.
The Government is irrevocably decided to ensure this, and it
can give the categorical assurance that it will achieve the aim in
question, which it regards as fundamental. It will then be for the
Greek trade union organisation to co-operate with the international trade union
movement for the success of the wider objects
at which it aims.1
After negotiations which lasted several weeks, an agreement
was in fact reached between the Greek Prime Minister and
Mr. Braine, the substantial effect of which was to reinstate
the members of the elected (but subsequently deposed) Executive, and to add to them an appropriate number of representatives of the Right.
The new Provisional Executive was to consist of five members of the Left tendency (E.R.G.A.S.2), two Socialist members
1

Cf.

2

Anti-Fascist Workers' Organisation.

T R A D E S U N I O N CONGRESS, op.

cit.,

p.

199.

T H E TRADE UNION SITUATION

249

unconnected with E.R.G.A.S., and five members of the Reformist
bloc.
In accordance with the first decision of the Council of State,
the duties of the Committee were to be confined : (1) to safeguarding trade union assets ; (2) to transacting current administrative business ; and (3) to arranging speedily for further
elections, to be supervised both by international observers and
by Greek judges.
The Prime Minister further undertook to convene a conference of all the trade union tendencies so as to ensure that
all took part in the forthcoming elections.
Finally, under the terms of one of the clauses of the agreement, the trade union leaders who had been imprisoned or
deported were to be set at liberty in so far as they had not
rendered themselves liable to prosecution for direct infringements of the Penal Code.
This agreement, which was signed by the Greek Prime
Minister and by the representative of the British Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, could not immediately be put into
force. The members of E.R.G.A.S. demanded, as a prerequisite
of their co-operation, the reinstatement of the elected Executive. To this the members of the Reformist bloc refused to
agree because they considered that the representation of their
tendency on the Executive was not commensurate with the
true importance of the movement throughout the country. The
Executive of the World Federation of Trade Unions, meeting
in Paris in December 1946, to which this dispute was referred
by the Left bloc, adopted a resolution advising the parties in
the following terms to accept the agreement :
In order to maintain trade union unity in Greece,
(1) to accept the proportion of seven to five (the " Braine "
proposals) for the reconstitution of the Bureau of the Greek Confederation of Labour elected by the Congress of 1 March 1946 ;
(2) to ask for an official statement from the Government, declaring that this will neither be a precedent nor the normal procedure
of designation, but an exceptional agreement to put an end to an
abnormal situation ;
(3) to declare that the national Congress of Trade Unions alone
can give a definitive form to the representation in the Executive ;
(4) to state clearly that this Congress must be convened within
the next three months. It must be organised democratically with
observers and controllers from the W.F.T.U.
17

250

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The Greek trade unions were advised of their responsibility to
give effect to the decisions taken by the W.F.T.U. 1
As a result of this consultation the Left bloc accepted the
agreement, but the Reformist bloc refused to conform to it.
Further Attempts at Agreement
At this juncture, Mr. Vincent Tewson, in his capacity as
member of the Executive Committee of the W.F.T.U., was
sent to Greece in April 1947, with the mission of bringing the
parties to an agreement, if possible.
Mr. Tewson did actually succeed in bringing the various
trade union tendencies together round a table, and submitted
proposals for the reconstruction of the Provisional Executive
on the basis of five seats for the Right bloc (E.R.E.P. 2 ), five
for the Left bloc (E.R.G.A.S.) and five for a " buffer " group of
centre tendencies, composed of two representatives of the former
elected Executive and of three other members representing new
tendencies which had emerged since the original Executive
was elected.
The Reformist bloc refused to be party to this agreement,
however, and another formula was then submitted, giving
seven seats to the Right bloc, seven to the Centre and seven to
the Left.
This time the attempt to find a settlement, with which the
British Labour Attaché, Mr. Braine, and the United States
Labour Attaché, Mr. Sam Berger, were closely associated,
seemed likely to be successful, since for the first time the various
trade union tendencies had been able to come to a preliminary
agreement on a real programme of trade union reform. It is
important that this programme should be given here because it
throws an indirect light on some of the deep-seated defects in
the Greek trade union movement.
The undersigned representatives of the various tendencies of
the trade union movement in Greece voluntarily agree that the
temporary Executive of the General Confederation of Labour of
Greece will presume the following lines of direction.
A. The international affairs of the Greek trade unions as well
as bona fide trade union activities will be free of any intervention
from (1) the police ; (2) political parties ; and (3) the State.
1

Cf.

2

Greek Reformist Workers' Group.

T R A D E S U N I O N CONGRESS, op.

cit.,

pp.

199-200.

T H E TRADE UNION

SITUATION

251

The temporary Executive will investigate all the allegations
and cases of such intervention and will take appropriate action to
safeguard the freedom and independence of the trade union
movement.
B. In order that the trade union activities may be directed to
a bona fide trade union purpose, the temporary Executive will
undertake to look into and express an opinion on (1) the validity
of those unions which pretend to be bona fide workers' unions ;
(2) the nominal rolls (registers) of the members of workers' unions,
the simultaneous participation in more than one union being forbidden ; and (3) the reorganisation of the structure and constitution
of the trade union movement.
For the above three purposes, the temporary Executive will
make use of and benefit by the experience of the trade unions of
other countries.
C. In order to achieve the establishment of a free and independent
movement, the temporary Executive will (1) undertake a full
examination of the Greek labour laws and make recommendations to the Government for their revision ; and (2) recommend
that the Government appoint a full-time Minister of Labour,
through whom the workers will be able to communicate with the
Government.
D. The undersigned call upon the Government to give again
explicit assurances that it will recommend to the competent authority the re-examination, within the framework of the existing
legislation, of the cases of the persecuted trade unionists and that
those who are not charged with criminal actions be released as soon
as possible.
E. The Executive of the General Confederation of Labour of
Greece to be set up will examine the question of the re-establishment
of the normal administration in the trade union organisation.
F. After the setting up of the Executive the undersigned tendencies are obliged by a common declaration to the Greek and the
international working class to consider as definitely
ended the
question of the trade union abnormality in Greece.1
Although t h e y were agreed on t h e programme, t h e various
groups could not come to an understanding on t h e method of
putting it into effect.
The E.R.G.A.S. bloc wished to entrust t h e supervision of t h e
agreement t o t h e W.F.T.U., while t h e other groups preferred
to entrust this t a s k t o t h e representatives of t h e T.U.C., t h e
A . F . of L., and t h e C.I.O.
Ultimately, therefore, t h e real stumbling-block was t h e
question of t h e international affiliation of t h e Greek General
Confederation of Labour, a question which only t h e forthcoming
Congress could settle.
1

Cf. T R A D E S U N I O N CONGRESS, op. cit., p . 202.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

When the members of the Left bloc had withdrawn from
the negotiations, the other groups came to an agreement on a
five-point programme as follows :
(1) to establish a trade union movement free of all Government
control and of all domination by a political party, based on an
active campaign for the restoration of free collective bargaining
and the progressive raising of the workers' standard of life ;
(2) to come to an agreement on candidates for posts on the Provisional Executive, whose names should then be submitted for approval,
in accordance with existing legislation, to the president of the court
of first instance, and thus to clear the way for the total liberation of
the trade union movement from Government interference ;
(3) to seek the advice and assistance of the representatives of
the American Federation of Labor, the Congress of Industrial
Organizations, and the British Trades Union Congress, with a view
to giving the free trade unions the right to elect their leaders and
to reconstruct their trade union organisation ;
(4) to seek the advice and assistance of the International Labour
Office in questions of social legislation, trade union organisation,
and collective agreements, with a view to eliminating as completely
as possible any Government interference in relations between the
workers' organisations and their employers ;
(5) to mobilise all the democratic forces of the trade union
movement against the greatest enemy of free trade unionism in
Greece, namely the E.R.G.A.S. bloc, which is nothing out the trade
union organ of the Communist party.
A list of 21 candidates for the Provisional Executive was
submitted to the court of first instance, which ratified the list
by Decision No. 9112 of 9 June 1947.
Present Organisation of the Greek General
Confederation of Labour
It would seem almost impossible to give any even approximately accurate particulars of the strength of the Greek trade
union movement at the present time.
It will be remembered that, under Greek law, all trade
unions must be registered with the court of first instance in
their locality. The clerk of the court is required, under section
19 of the Trade Union Act of 1920, to deliver at the end of
each month to the Minister of Labour, to the prefect and to
the labour inspector, a statement as to the trade unions which
have been recognised, have amended their rules or have been
dissolved during the past month.

T H E TRADE UNION SITUATION

253

In theory, therefore, it should not be difficult to compile
exact trade union statistics. Owing, however, to the deep
disturbances within the Greek trade union movement ever since
the liberation, such statistics are at the moment completely
lacking.
All that can be done here, therefore, is to reproduce the
very approximate figures supplied by the present Provisional
Executive of the General Confederation of Labour.
Under the rules of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour, the Confederation consists of the following organs :
a National Congress, a National Council, a General Committee,
a Control Committee, an Executive Committee and a General
Secretariat.
For the time being the only organs that actually exist
are a Provisional Executive and a temporary General
Secretariat.
The General Secretariat is composed of a General Secretary
belonging to E.R.E.P. (Greek Reformist Workers' Group) and
four secretaries representing (1) the E.R.E.P., (2) the E.M.E.
(National Workers' Front), (3) the Socialist Workers' group
and (4) an independent Left trade union group.
The Provisional Executive consists, in addition to the five
secretaries, of 16 members divided as follows between the
various tendencies : five members of E.R.E.P., three members
of E.M.E., one member of the Socialist Workers' group, five
members of E.R.G.A.S., one Socialist-Syndicalist and one
" Archio-Marxist ". It should be remembered that five, representatives of the extreme Left have refused to occupy the
seats reserved for them.
The regional organisation of the Confederation consists
of 62 workers' centres in the chief towns of the country, to
which are affiliated, on an inter-occupational basis, such local
trade unions as exist in the localities where the workers' centres
are situated.
In addition, the occupational unions are grouped in industrial
federations. Of a total of 20 federations existing before the war
no more than 8 would appear to have been reconstructed at
the time of writing.
Finally, according to information supplied by the General
Secretary of the Provisional Executive, 1,850 unions, with a
total membership of between 200,000 and 220,000, are at present
affiliated to the General Confederation.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

A National Congress was to have met on 7 December 1947,
but had to be postponed because of the abnormal situation in
certain districts of the country. 1
Emergency Measures
No description of the de jure and de facto situation of Greek
trade unionism, as set out in the preceding pages of this chapter,
would be complete without some reference to a number of
emergency measures which seem to have had far-reaching
effects on the trade union movement. Some of these measures
date from before the war ; others were occasioned by the present
serious crisis in the country. They will be briefly dealt with
below.
T H E RIGHT OF ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

It will be remembered that under Article 11 of the Constitution, the right of association without previous authorisation is
granted to all citizens, and by definition therefore to public
employees.
Before the. dictatorship of General Metaxas, this right had
been in fact granted to public employees by a whole series
of Acts, codified to some extent by Act No. 4879 of 6 March 1931
concerning organisations of public employees.2
Under section 1 of this Act civil servants, other than police
employees, are entitled to form occupational associations and
federations thereof for the development of the administrative
branch to which they belong or the furtherance of their occupational interests. Such associations and federations were made
subject to the following restrictions, in addition to the restrictions applicable to associations in general:
(1) The members of such associations and federations shall be
public employees belonging to the same branch, and the membership of employees belonging to another branch shall be absolutely
prohibited.
(2) Such associations and federations shall not pursue political
aims or employ for the furtherance of professional interests any
1
The Ninth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress met at Athens in
April 1948. The report of the Supervisory Committee concerning this
congress is given in Appendix II.
a
Cf. L.S., 1931, Gr. 6.

T H E TRADE UNION

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255

means which may interfere with the regular working of the services
of the State and weaken hierarchical authority and discipline.
(3) Such associations and federations shall not include among
their objects any objects which are foreign to the professional
interests of their members.
(4) The appointment as member of the management of any
such association of a person who within the last five years has been
a member of the management of an association for the same branch
of the public service shall be prohibited. The holding of such office
for more than two years in the same or another association for the
same branch of the service shall also be prohibited. This rule shall
apply also to persons who were members of the management before
the coming into operation of this Act.
Contravention of these provisions shall entail the dissolution
of the association or federation and disciplinary measures against
the guilty employees.
The affiliation of associations or federations of public employees
or of individual public employees to associations or federations of
employees or employers which are based on the class struggle shall
be prohibited.
Although the right of civil servants to associate was thus
recognised, the right to strike—as in many other countries—
was refused. By a whole series of Acts 1 , the right to strike,
even the right to the sit-down strike, was forbidden on pain
both of penal sanctions (imprisonment or penal servitude) and
by disciplinary sanctions (e.g., suspension or dismissal).
During the dictatorship of General Metaxas, an Act of 2
August 1937 2 made the right of association of civil servants
conditional on previous authorisation by the Government.
Under section 1 of this Act, officials and other employees
in the service of the State or of a public body of any kind were
forbidden to form associations or to become members of any
existing association, whatever their nature or objects, without
permission from the Government, and such authorisation was
at all times subject to cancellation.
Officials who were already members of associations were
required to give notice thereof to their superior officers within
one month from the entry into force of the Act, and to apply
for the necessary permission. Heads of services were required
to report forthwith to the competent Ministry any member of
1

See, in particular, Act No. 5458 of 7 May 1932 respecting strikes
of public employees, domestic staff, etc., of Government departments;
cf. L.S., 1932, Gr. 5.
2
Cf. L.S., 1937, Gr. 6.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS ÏN GREECE

their staff who might be guilty of a contravention of these
provisions under pain of liability to the penalty laid down for
unjustifiable negligence.
Unless circumstances justified penal proceedings, contraventions of the above provisions constituted a serious disciplinary offence entailing the dismissal of the guilty person, in
pursuance of a complaint laid by his superior officer before the
competent disciplinary board, proposing suspension for not
more than six months or, in the event of a second offence,
dismissal from the service.
This Act does not appear to have been specifically repealed,
but it may be assumed that, with the restoration of the Constitution immediately after the liberation, civil servants have
recovered their freedom of association in accordance with the
laws in force before the dictatorship.
A Decree of August 1946 1 concerning the purging of the
public services is dealt with in another part of this Report 2 ,
and need only be mentioned here.
DISCRIMINATORY MEASURES IN RESPECT OF TRADE

UNIONS

Certain measures of trade union discrimination, undertaken
for political reasons, go as far back as the dictatorship of
General Pángalos (1926), while others date from the dictatorship
of General Metaxas.
Under Act No. 3542 of 1928, " the Minister of Communications is authorised to dismiss railway and tramway employees
and employees of electrical works if he is convinced that
such employees hold Communist opinions or are inveterate
agitators " .
Act No. 3528 of the same year also provides that " any
member of a trade union organisation for railwaymen,
tramwaymen, electricity or gas workers who has been
dismissed must be struck off the register of the trade union
concerned " .
The application of these two Acts was suspended for six
months under Act No. 279 of 1945, but it would seem that,
at the expiration of these six months, the Acts in question
entered into force again.
1
2

Cf. Government Gazette, 21 August 1946.
Cf. Chapter VII, pp. 289-290.

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257

T H E COMPULSORY TRADE UNION CONTRIBUTION

It has already been stated that, under the Act of 13 October
1942, which re-established trade union rights 1, Act No. 1435
of 1938 on occupational unions, promulgated during the Metaxas
dictatorship, had been formally and completely repealed.
Under section 6 of this Act a compulsory trade union contribution was required to be collected from all employed persons,
whether trade unionists or not, for the benefit of the Greek
National Confederation of Labour.
In this connection, it should be emphasised that, in the
pre-war corporative systems which served as a model for
Greek law in 1938, the system of a compulsory trade union
contribution (which, it need hardly be said, has nothing in
common with the stoppage of trade union dues from workers'
wages in virtue of an agreement between the employer and
the trade union concerned) was to some extent a logical corollary
of the legal trade union monopoly which the officially recognised
trade unions enjoyed. Under the Act of 1938, not only the
National Confederation of Labour, but the federations and
unions affiliated to it, had been granted the privilege of legally
representing all the workers—whether members of trade unions
or not—in negotiations with the public authorities and with
employers. Furthermore, the collective agreements concluded
under the auspices of the official unions applied automatically
to all workers engaged in the occupation or industry covered
by the agreement in question.
By restoring freedom of association, the law ipso fado did
away with the legal fiction of trade union monopoly which,
up to then, might have been held to justify what really amounted
to a trade union tax on all workers.
Nevertheless, in order to cope with the serious financial
crisis with which the trade union movement was faced immediately after the liberation, section 6 of the 1938 Act was reenacted by means of a whole series of Acts promulgated in
1945 and in 1946 (Nos. 393, 581, 620 and 703).
By a joint decision of the Ministers of Finance and Labour,
No. 29879, dated 18 September 1946, the amount of the compulsory trade union contribution was fixed at 1,000 drachmae
per month, divided as follows : (a) 400 drachmae for the General
1

See above, p. 223.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Confederation of Labour ; (b) 300 drachmae for the local
workers' centre ; (c) 200 drachmae for the trade union catering
for the worker's occupation ; and (d) 100 drachmae for the
Provident Fund for trade union officials, of which 60 drachmae
were allocated to pensions and 40 drachmae to welfare.
These contributions must be paid in full by all persons
who are permanently employed or who earn at least 16 days'
pay per month.
Workers earning between 6 and 15 days' pay per month
pay a monthly contribution of only 500 drachmae. Those
earning 5 days' pay or less per month are exempt from the
compulsory contribution.
The compulsory trade union contribution must be deducted
by the employers from the wages of their staff and credited to
the appropriate accounts at the National Bank of Greece,
with the exception of the sums allocated to the local workers'
centres and trade unions, which handle such sums directly on
their own account.
The obligation thus created for all workers, whether
members of a trade union or not, to pay a compulsory trade
union contribution, appears to have met with some opposition
among the workers, and an appeal for the abrogation of this
ministerial decision was made to the Council of State.
The decision of the Council of State (No. 1466/1947), while
admitting that section 1 of the Act of 31 October 1942 restoring
freedom of association had completely repealed the Act on
occupational organisations of 1938, promulgated during the
dictatorship, and also all other laws and regulations issued
subsequently concerning the composition, operation and representation of the Greek National Confederation of Labour or
of occupational unions of workers of all kinds or federations
of such unions, nevertheless recognises the validity of the
ministerial decision under dispute, laying down, inter alia, that
" compulsory trade union contributions . . . cannot be considered as being bound up with the composition, operation or
representation of the Greek General Confederation of Labour".
MEASURES CONCERNING PUBLIC ORDER

In order to meet the very serious situation created by the
Civil War, the " Greek Revisionary Parliament " adopted a
series of emergency measures or resolutions (psephismata)

THE TRADE UNION

SITUATION

259

for the temporary suspension of some of the fundamental
liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. These measures
while not relating directly to trade unions, have had, indirectly,
some serious effects on the trade union movement.
Thus, under a resolution of 18 June 1946 1, as amended,
for the purpose of repressing separatist tendencies calculated
to prejudice the integrity of national territory, it is provided in
section 4 that any person who takes part in a public open-air
meeting forbidden by the authorities, or in a meeting not in
the open air without previously advising the competent police
authorities, is liable to at least three months' imprisonment.
When persons meeting in the open air are legally summoned
to disperse, anyone who refuses to do so is liable to at least
six months' imprisonment.
Under section 9 of the same measure, the police are empowered : (1) to make house searches by day or by night
for the purpose of discovering arms, explosives or war material,
or to arrest accused persons ; and (2) to prohibit during
specified hours in the night the circulation of unauthorised
persons.
Infringements of these provisions are dealt with by courts
martial, against whose judgment there is no appeal.
Finally, under section 15, in the case of offences specified
in the resolution, there is no time-limit to the period of preventive detention.
In addition, there is a complete suspension of all common
law provisions for release on bail, binding over or the substitution
of a fine for imprisonment.
It may be asked whether these measures, the justification
for which was the exceptional situation of the country at the
time, have served as a pretext for reducing trade union opposition to impotence. The Left tendency of the trade union
movement maintains that this is so, alleging, inter alia, that
hundreds of trade union leaders—including several members of
the former elected Executive—were arrested or deported merely
because of their trade union activities and without being charged
with any particular offence.
It has also been noted in the preceding pages that, on more
than one occasion, all the tendencies of the trade union movement demanded the liberation of trade union workers whose
1

Cf. Government Gazette, First Part, 18 June 1946.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

innocence had been recognised. Moreover, the Greek Government complied with these demands by extending a very large
measure of amnesty to certain categories of imprisoned or
deported workers.
However that may be, as a result of these wholly exceptional
circumstances, it has been asserted that the freedom of action
of the trade union movement is at present restricted and that
many trade union leaders are deterred, through the fear of
arrest or deportation, from standing for the trade union elections
which are at present being held in Greece.
Another resolution adopted in 1947 (No. 121, as amended),
directed principally against publications inciting to civil war,
provides that newspapers and periodicals which conspire
against the integrity and internal peace of the country may
be suspended at 24 hours' notice by decision of the court of
appeal. The publication of new papers or periodicals is forbidden
without the special authorisation of the Minister of Information.
Moreover, with the exception of the newspapers or periodicals
which are authorised to appear, it is forbidden to reproduce
printed matter in any way whatsoever or to distribute it in the
form of posters or in any other way, without the previous
authorisation of the chief of the local police concerned.
It should also be noted that, under a Decree of 8 December
1947, the right to strike or to declare a lockout was suspended,
for the duration of the civil war, for all classes of workers and
employers.
Any persons who take part in a strike or a lockout forbidden
under this Decree are liable to six months' imprisonment, or
in particularly serious cases to penal servitude. Leaders or chief
instigators are liable to penal servitude or, in particularly
serious cases, long-term imprisonment or imprisonment for life.
Persons who take part in a strike or lockout are liable to the
same penalty. Striking is considered to be collective whenever
more than three persons take part in a strike.
As a corollary to the prohibition of strikes and lockouts,
the same Decree makes provision for compulsory arbitration
in collective labour disputes. 1
1
Cf. Messager d'Athènes, 7 and 8 December 1947. The Prime
Minister, Mr. Sophoulis, has given an assurance t h a t the Government
intends to propose the repeal of the Decree of 8 December 1947 as soon
as an improvement in the situation permits and, in particular, as soon
as the trade union movement is under the direction of a responsible.

THE TRADE UNION SITUATION

261

Finally, immediately after the proclamation of a rebel
" government " in northern Greece, a special Act of 27 December
1947 concerning the security of the State and the régime, social
order and the protection of the liberty of the individual 1 ,
ordered the dissolution of the Greek Communist Party, of the
organisations affiliated to it, and also of any association or
organisation which might be considered to be collaborating
with the Communist Party, or to be promoting, directly or
indirectly, views aiming at overthrowing by violence the
established political or social régime, or at alienating any part
of the territory of the State (section 1, paragraph 1).
Under section 1, paragraph 2, the Council of Ministers,
as regards political parties, and local security committees,
as regards associations or organisations, may decide that
parties, associations or organisations not explicitly mentioned in
the Act, and also parties or organisations set up after the entry
into force of the Act, may during the period of civil war be
included under the provisions of the preceding paragraph.
Such decisions are without appeal. The offices of all parties,
associations or organisations whose dissolution is thus pronounced are closed and all their assets and records are seized
by the courts.
Under section 2,
anyone who disseminates ideas the manifest object of which is
violently to overthrow the established political régime or social
system, or to alienate any portion of State territory, as also anyone
who carries on propaganda work in favour of such ideas, is punishable, in the case of a leader or a chief instigator, to a specified term
of hard labour ; in particularly serious cases, to hard labour for
life, or to the death penalty. If, however, the person in question is merely an accessory in such plotting, he is liable to imprisonment or, in particularly serious cases, to penal servitude or a term
of hard labour.
A particularly aggravating circumstance shall be judged to be
the carrying on of such activity in a public place, in the presence
of a large crowd of persons, or by means of the press, or if the propaganda in question is carried out by means of money subsidies, or
if it is particularly addressed to minors, soldiers or civil servants.
If the offences in question are committed through the press,
the author or editor of the publication in question, or the
leadership elected " by democratic methods for the free expression of
its will " (idem, 7 February 1948). The prohibition of the right to strike
has now been removed by Decree No. 122 of 7 May 1948.
1
Idem, 28 December 1947.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

manager or printer of the publication, together with anyone
who knowingly circulates the document, and also the printer,
when the publisher is unknown, are held responsible. Under
section 4, open-air or private meetings for the dissemination
of such ideas are forbidden.
Persons who knowingly take part in a meeting of this kind
are liable to at least six months' imprisonment. A similar
penalty is incurred by persons who knowingly allow such a
meeting to take place in their private house or in the premises
of their undertaking.
Under section 5, the conviction of civil servants and other
public servants for one of the offences specified in the Act
involves dismissal from the service and disqualification for any
other function or public service for at least five years. Furthermore, civil servants and other public servants who, although
they may not have committed one of the offences forbidden
in the Act, may nevertheless have carried on Communist
propaganda or have attacked the ideas of patriotism and the
national symbols therewith connected, are definitively dismissed
from the service.
Finally, any infringement of the Act is dealt with by courts
martial, against whose judgment there is no appeal.
In the preamble to the Act, the Government states, inter
alia, that,
in default of the Chamber, it is itself fulfilling a supreme duty
to the country by proclaiming the dissolution of parties and organisations which, in point of fact, have never been of service to Greece,
and which by their actions have long since placed themselves outside
the law. For this purpose the Government is taking all necessary
measures to defend the State, the existing régime, the social order
and the true liberties of the people.
At the same time the Government is proceeding to purge the
public services by the elimination of civil servants and others—•
quite apart from any penal sanctions for which they may be liable—
who undertake, in any way whatsoever, propaganda in favour of
the objectives of the enemies of the country, and thus make themselves the conscious instruments of these enemies.
As the result of the promulgation of this Act, all trade
unions affiliated to E.R.G.A.S. (the anti-Fascist workers' organisation) have been dissolved and their assets and archives
confiscated.
Thus the course of events has, temporarily at any rate,
put an end to the attempts to reconcile the various trade union
tendencies.

T H E TRADE UNION SITUATION

263

Conclusions and Recommendations

Even the most impartial outline of events can be misleading
if these events are not placed in the setting in which they
actually happened, in such a way as to show the exact nature
and real meaning of the action taken by the various parties
and by the public and judicial authorities.
As has already been recalled, Greece is at the moment in
the throes of a civil war in the outcome of which other countries
are directly interested, and as a result of which even the independence of the country may be compromised. In other words,
the Greek trade union drama is only one episode of the drama
of the Greek people.
In these exceptional circumstances, the Government responsible for the affairs of the country is naturally the sole judge
of the measures which in the interests of public security it is
compelled to take.
The Mission is thus fully aware that any suggestions which
it may submit below for the improvement of the trade union
situation in Greece can be usefully considered only when the
country has returned to normality.

T H E PRINCIPLE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION

The first recommendation which the Mission thinks it well
to make is concerned with the principle of non-discrimination
in trade union questions.
It has already been pointed out that, at various periods
of its history—but more particularly since the present crisis
began—the Greek Government has been obliged to take
" emergency measures " involving certain acts of discrimination
in trade union matters with regard to certain categories of
workers.
It has also been seen that in the past some of these measures
continued in force after the exceptional circumstances which
had given rise to them had come to an end.
The majority of these emergency Acts were limited to the
duration of the crisis, and will therefore lapse automatically
as soon as normal conditions return.
In all probability, both as regards certain measures taken
in the past and as regards recent measures, the Government

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

will wish to return, so soon as circumstances permit, to the
principle of non-discrimination in trade union matters, which
after all is only an instance of the general principle of equality
before the law, a principle which is formally embodied in the
present Greek Constitution.
In this connection it is important to remember that the
principle of non-discrimination on any grounds whatsoever has
been included in the Charter of the United Nations, and also
in the Declaration of Philadelphia. It also figures in the first
paragraph of the Resolution on freedom of association unanimously adopted by the 30th Session of the International Labour
Conference (1947) and will be an integral part of the proposed
Convention on freedom of association on which the International Labour Conference of 1948 will be called upon to take
a decision.1
In making this recommendation, the Mission has no intention
whatever of suggesting that the Government should give a
blank cheque to organisations of any kind which, by their
actions, may prejudice public order or the internal or external
security of the State. Obviously the workers and their organisations, like any other individuals or organised bodies, are
obliged to respect the laws concerning public order, however
severe these may be, since, by definition, they apply to the
nation as a whole. There can be no question of discrimination
unless the law strikes at individuals or organisations not because
of infringements of the law which they have actually committed,
but because of opinions which they may hold. The same would
naturally be the case a fortiori if, on account of their opinions,
workers were excluded from the benefits of freedom of
association, or even from any employment, whether public
or private.
In this connection, Pascal's aphorism that every man is a
heretic in someone's eyes comes to mind. When Pascal coined
this phrase, he must have visualised the long line of heretics
who turned orthodox and of victims who became persecutors.
Nothing but the explicit recognition by all modern constitutions
of the fundamental principles of liberty has been able to break
this cycle.
It is therefore in respect for the principle of non-discrimination in trade union and employment questions that there
1

See above, p. 210, footnote 1.

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265

lies the hope of seeing, in due course, a free and united trade
union movement restored in Greece.
POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

But although all workers without any distinction whatsoever should enjoy trade union rights, it is no less indispensable, in the interests of the working class itself, that the trade
union movement as such should keep itself free from the influence
of political parties.
The experience of other countries has clearly shown that
the political independence of the trade union movement is
essential to its existence and efficiency. Most of the trade union
charters which those concerned have voluntarily adopted
explicitly proclaim the political neutrality of the trade union
movement.
The same is true of the existing rules of the Greek General
Confederation of Labour. But it has been seen throughout
this Report that political divergencies have been the main
obstacle to the reconstruction of the Greek trade union movement. In this connection it is enough to recall the fact that the
Provisional Executive of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour is composed of representatives of at least seven different
tendencies, quite apart from the many nuances which may be
observed within each of these fractions of the movement. This
is clearly the proof of a spirit of divergence pushed to extremes,
which has led to the division of the working class and to the
incapacity of the trade union movement to formulate or carry
out any real programme of occupational and social self-defence.
In other words, Greek trade unionism relies for the improvement
of the conditions of the workers upon political action rather than
upon trade union action properly so called.
But the most serious long-term consequence of this situation is that the State is almost inevitably led to take sides in
favour of one or other of the groups with which it has to deal.
The whole history of the Greek trade union movement
clearly shows that a trade union group which thus enjoys some
form of privileged treatment tends insensibly to drift towards
a form of official trade unionism deprived of any real autonomy
or freedom of action.
The Mission therefore ventures to recommend, not to the
Government, which is not involved in this, but to the actual
18

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

parties concerned, that they should remain loyal to the principle
of the political independence of the trade union movement,
a principle which is enshrined in the rules of the General Confederation of Labour, and on the basis of which trade union
unity may be achieved in the future.
T H E COMPULSORY TRADE UNION CONTRIBUTION

Some of the characteristics of Greek trade unionism, such
as the compulsory trade union contribution, can only be conceived of as part of a unified trade union movement. Reference
has been made above to the circumstances in which the compulsory trade union contribution was first introduced, then
suppressed and later brought in again. The main object of the
reintroduction of compulsory trade union contributions after
the war was to enable Greek trade unionism to cope with a
serious financial crisis. The contribution can be justified—as
stated above—on the hypothesis of a trade union movement
which is unified and really representative of the working class
as a whole. On the other hand, it assumes the nature of compulsory taxation if it has to be paid for the benefit of a given
trade union group, which will always be tempted to utilise it
for its own purposes.
But the most serious objection to such a contribution is
of quite another kind. It is a matter of common knowledge
that the only de jure and de facto link between the various
members of a trade union is the voluntary trade union contribution. This constitutes also the only proof that a worker
belongs to his trade union, and is thus the basis of his right
to vote or his right to be elected. Moreover, the trade union
legislation in force in Greece presupposes that voluntary contributions are paid, and makes the right to be elected to positions
of trust in trade unions conditional on the previous payment
of such contributions.
At the present time, however, most Greek trade unions do
not collect any voluntary contributions, and it is difficult,
therefore, to ascertain with any certainty the true figures of
trade union membership.
There can be little doubt that this is the real reason why
the validity of elections in the past has always been contested.
The same will inevitably be true of future elections, whatever

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267

precautions may be taken to check the lists of members and to
supervise electoral operations.
Clearly these are imperative arguments in favour of the
suppression of a trade union " levy" which goes back to a time
when official trade unionism in Greece, and in other countries
with a corporative régime, was considered, by a purely legal
fiction, to represent the whole body of workers in a country.
None the less, the Mission hesitates to recommend the
complete suppression of the compulsory trade union contribution, because, in existing circumstances, it would be difficult
for the trade union movement to survive if it were to be
abruptly deprived of the resources emanating from the trade
union " levy ".
In the Mission's view, the solution of the problem should
be sought in another direction. In compelling all workers,
whether members of trade unions or not, to pay a trade union
contribution, the law has effectively established a legal bond
between each worker and the trade union of his particular
occupation. The corollary of this is that each worker should
be entitled to take part in trade union elections.
Furthermore, nothing but a genuine consultation of all
the workers, carried out at the most propitious moment and
with all the guarantees provided by existing trade union legislation (e.g., supervision of elections by a judge) would, it would
seem, conduce to the re-establishment of trade union unity.
Failing such a solution, the Mission proposes that the
compulsory trade union contribution should be suppressed.
REFORM OF TRADE UNION LEGISLATION

Codification of Regulations
It has been seen that the regulation of Greek trade unionism
is based upon a great many texts, namely, Article 11 of the
Constitution, the Act of 21 June-4 July 1914 on associations,
the Act of 21 March-3 April 1920 on trade unions, the Royal
Decree of 15 May 1920 regulating the application of that Act,
and Chapter IV of the Civil Code of 1946 concerning legal
personality, apart from numerous special measures dealing
with certain categories of workers such as civil servants and
employees in the public service, or the emergency measures
which suspended certain fundamental guarantees in the Con-

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

stitution for the duration of the emergency. Trade union
legislation is therefore extremely complicated, and the persons
concerned have considerable difficulty in finding their way
through the maze of legal provisions which are scattered about
in measures the origins of and the reasons for which were very
varied. Yet the chief merit of any legislation is to be clear,
concise and easily understood by those to whom it is intended
to apply.
Moreover, the issue of successive texts on the same question
very often leads to overlapping or even to contradictions,
despite every precaution which may be taken to avoid them.
Thus, Article 12 of the new Civil Code explicitly repealed
certain provisions of the Associations Act of 1914, but maintained in force the Trade Unions Act of 1920, together with
all the regulations made in application of that Act. Yet some
of the provisions of these two Acts would not seem to be entirely
in accord with the provisions of the new Civil Code.
Some of the inconsistencies (see above, in the passages
concerning the quorum) have been alluded to in the course of
this chapter, but others have been passed over in silence
because it seemed impossible to discuss provisions which clearly
contradicted each other.
It may be mentioned, as an example, that, under the Royal
Decree of 15 May 1920, one twentieth of those taking part in
a general meeting or in a Trade Union Congress may contest
the validity of the decisions taken, within a maximum timelimit of 10 days. On the other hand, under Article 101 of the
Civil Code, decisions taken by a general meeting may be contested by any member who disagrees or by any other person
legitimately concerned, within a maximum time-limit of six
months.
It is superfluous to emphasise the practical consequences
which may and do arise from such legislative uncertainty.
Finally, some of the provisions of the new Civil Code which
are applicable to trade unions, to which further reference
will be made later, have made substantial changes in the position of the trade union movement which seem hardly compatible with the guarantees provided in the Constitution and
in previous trade union legislation.
For all these reasons, a revision in the nature of a codification would seem to be necessary in the interests both of the
Government and of the workers.

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269

In a declaration, already quoted, made on 20 October 1946,
the then Prime Minister, Mr. Tsaldaris, himself recognised
the necessity of such action. " The Government ", he said,
" will introduce to Parliament legislation regarding trade
unions, which is in any case notable for its liberal spirit.
Freedom to associate for trade union purposes, and especially
the self-government of the organisations remote from all
Government intervention, will be fully strengthened by this
legislation."
The International Labour Office would regard it as a privilege
to assist in such a revision, if the Greek Government wished
it to do so.
But pending this re-examination of trade union legislation,
the Mission thinks it desirable to draw the attention of the
Greek Government to a number of existing legal provisions
in regard to which certain reservations seem to be necessary.
These points will be considered in the light of the principles
unanimously adopted by the 30th Session of the International
Labour Conference (1947) in its Resolution concerning freedom
of association, principles which the 31st Session of the Conference (1948) will be called upon to transform into solemn
obligations by means of a Convention.1
Constitution of Occupational Organisations
As has been stated at the beginning of this chapter, Greek
trade union legislation is based on Article 11 of the Constitution,
which provides that " Greek citizens possess the right of
association conforming with the laws of the State and in no
case can the laws subject the right to any previous authorisation ".
The Council of State, the highest judicial authority in the
country, reaffirmed the scope of this principle with particular
emphasis in Decision No. 885 of 1946, which has been analysed
in the course of this chapter. 2 The Council of State said :
This Article gives complete freedom to the legislature to settle
all problems concerning the organisation and activities of trade
unions, on condition, however, that the provisions of the laws on
this subject do not violate the two explicit guarantees given in the
1
2

See above, p. 210, footnote 1.
See pp. 237 et seq.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Constitution, namely : (1) that the establishment and dissolution
of associations shall never be made dependent on previous authorisation by the Executive Power . . .
It will be noted that it is precisely this guarantee of freedom
of association without previous authorisation which is set out
in almost similar terms in paragraph 1 of the Resolution concerning freedom of association adopted by the 30th Session of
the International Labour Conference, (Geneva, 1947). This
paragraph reads :
Employers and workers, without distinction whatsoever, should
have the inviolable right to establish or join organisations of their
own choosing without previous authorisation.
It has, however, been shown that the emergency measures
taken recently by the Government have restricted the application of this principle in the case of certain categories of
workers. The Mission takes the view that the return to a normal
situation and the complete re-establishment of constitutional
guarantees should automatically involve the repeal of all legal
provisions which entail discrimination in the matter of occupational organisations.
Autonomy of Occupational Organisations
The autonomy of occupational organisations would seem
to be the necessary complement of freedom of association for
individuals. The Greek Council of State, in the decision quoted
above, emphasised this point in unequivocal terms.
The legislature is bound . . . not to limit freedom of association
in such a way as to diminish or neutralise it. Furthermore, in view
of the fact that the freedom to create an association is inconceivable
without the freedom of its members to govern it, any intervention
by the administrative authorities which substantially hinders the
free election of the administrative organs of associations would in
principle constitute a serious restriction on freedom of association,
such as is forbidden by the Constitution.
This fundamental position taken up by the Council of
State is in agreement with the second principle formulated
in the Resolution on freedom of association, which runs as
follows :
Employers' and workers' organisations should have the right
to draw up their constitutions and rules, to organise their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes ; there

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SITUATION

271

should be no interference on the part of the public authorities which
would restrict this right or impede the organisations in the lawful
exercise of this right.
Examination of the trade union legislation has shown that
although the activities of trade unions are regulated with a
wealth of detail which it would be desira,ble to reduce when
the texts can be codified, most of the clauses in question would
seem to be solely inspired by the wish to assist trade unions
in drawing up the rules required for governing their organisation and activities.
Nevertheless, certain reservations should be made concerning the provisions dealing with the supervision of trade
unions. According to section 30 of the Associations Act of 1914,
the representatives of the authorities are empowered to attend
trade union meetings and to supervise them. Furthermore, as
a result of certain recent emergency measures, all meetings
would appear to be subject to previous authorisation.
Measures of this kind, concerning both private and public
trade union meetings, can with difficulty be reconciled with the
provisions of the Greek Constitution on freedom of assembly,
which guarantee Greek citizens the right to meet peacefully
and without arms. Moreover, the Constitution provides that
the police may only be present at public meetings.
The Mission considers that, in normal circumstances, it
should be left to the trade unions themselves to keep order at
their meetings, and that trade union problems should be discussed
in complete freedom.
Suspension or Dissolution of Occupational Organisations
Article 11 of the Greek Constitution states that " associations cannot be dissolved for infringing provisions of the laws,
except by judicial decision".
Here again, this constitutional guarantee corresponds with
paragraph 3 of the Resolution on freedom of association, which
affirms that " employers' and workers' organisations should
not be liable to be dissolved or have their activities suspended
by administrative authority ".
It will be noted, however, that the Resolution includes a
guarantee as to the suspension of occupational organisations,
which is not provided for in the Greek Constitution.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

It will therefore be necessary to consider, first, the suspension of trade unions and, secondly, their dissolution.
Suspension.
Section 33 of the Associations Act, 1914, provides that the
Minister of Labour, as the supreme supervisory authority, may
depose the administrative committee of an association and
appoint a provisional committee if it is proved that an offence
has been committed involving the penalties provided for by
the Act, or if any serious administrative or financial irregularity
has been proved such as to involve sanctions under the Penal
Code.
Probably this provision has nothing to do with the dissolution of an association by administrative means, since this is
forbidden under the Constitution, but with the mere provisional
suspension of the administrative committee of an organisation.
Nevertheless, the Mission considers that, in accordance
with paragraph 3 of the Resolution concerning freedom of
association, it should be for the courts—which alone are competent to determine infringements of the law—to suspend, even
provisionally, the administrative committee of an occupational
organisation.
Dissolution and Reconstitution.
The judicial dissolution, properly so-called, of an association
is provided for in Article 105 of the new Civil Code, which
repeals the former section 31 of the Associations Act, 1914. It
should be recalled that, under Article 105 of the Civil Code, an
association may be dissolved as the result of a decision given
by the court of first instance on the request of the administrative committee, or at the request of one fifth of the members,
or also at the request of the supervising authority, in the following circumstances :
(1) if it is impossible to appoint an administrative committee as
a result of a reduction in the number of members, or for any other
reason, or if it is established that the operation of the association
has become impossible under the existing rules ;
(2) if the objects of the association have been attained, or
if, as I he result of a long suspension of its activities, it can be concluded that the association has abandoned its professed objects ;

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273

(3) if the association is pursuing objects different from those
assigned in its rules, or if the objects or the activities of the
association are contrary to law or to good morals, or constitute a
menace to public order.
The Mission considers that, in a matter of such importance
for occupational organisations, the terms of the Act should
be defined with rigorous precision and should not be capable
of any wide interpretation. Thus the words " for any other
reason ", which, by the way, do not appear in section 31 of the
Associations Act, 1914, and which do not lend themselves to
any exact legal interpretation, should be deleted.
Some means should also be found of bringing Article 105
of the Civil Code into harmony with Article 69 of the Code,
which provides that the president of the court of first instance
must appoint a provisional administrative committee " a t the
request of any person concerned", if the persons responsible
for the administration of the association are absent or if their
interests are opposed to the interests of the association.
The effect of this text is that the judge is entitled not only
to order the dissolution of an organisation as a form of penalty,
but also, in certain circumstances, to appoint a provisional
administrative committee.
In the opinion of the Mission, this Article, for which no
parallel can be found in the previous legislation on associations,
would seem, in its present form, to give rise to certain objections
both on practical grounds and for reasons of principle.
Practical objections. The Article allows " any person concerned" (i.e., possibly a single member only of a trade union,
and not one fifth of the members as in the case of dissolution),
to plead that the interests of persons responsible for the
administration of the association "are opposed to the interests
of the association ".
There is danger that the extreme vagueness of the terms
quoted may open the door too wide to arbitrary action by
permitting any person concerned to bring about for artificial
reasons judicial interference in the administration of occupational organisations.
It has been stated already that the provision in question
was introduced quite recently into Greek legislation, and that
the Council of State relied on it in order to remove the appointment of the Provisional Executive of the Greek General Confederation of Labour from the influence of the Executive Power.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

It has been seen, however, that, in view of existing circumstances, the appointment of the Executive of the Greek General
Confederation of Labour, as well as that of the executives of
trade union federations, workers' centres or trade unions
themselves, has become an acutely political matter. It is not
desirable to entrust such duties either to the judiciary or to
the political authorities, as the establishment of organisations
should be reserved exclusively to the persons concerned.
Objections of principle. According to Greek trade union
legislation, occupational organisations may be constituted in
full freedom and their executives may be freely elected. It is
true that trade union elections and the decisions of general
meetings are liable to be invalidated for reasons specified in
the law. But in the last resort it is for trade union members
themselves to appoint their administrative bodies. Any interference, therefore, even provisional, either by the judicial
or by the executive authorities, in the setting up of an administrative body should be entirely ruled out.
Since Article 69 of the Civil Code applies to occupational
organisations, permanent provision is made for the intervention
of the president of the court. Hence an entirely new element
has been introduced into Greek trade union legislation, an
element which it is difficult to reconcile either with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of association or with the
autonomy of the occupational organisations.
For these reasons, the Mission proposes that trade unions
should be exempt from the provisions of Article 69 of the
Civil Code.
Recognition of Occupational Organisations
Greek trade union legislation makes the acquisition of
legal personality by trade unions a condition of their existence.
An obligation of this kind would be contrary to the spirit of
the Greek Constitution, which guarantees Greek citizens freedom
of association without previous authorisation, if the acquisition
of legal personality were to be made dependent on basic or
formal conditions such as might prejudice the free constitution
of trade unions and their autonomy.
Mention has already been made in this Report of the regulations to which occupational organisations must conform in order

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275

to obtain legal recognition. These regulations go into great
detail, but they would not appear directly to prejudice the
fundamental liberties of the occupational organisations.
It would appear from the text of the Civil Code that the
president of the court of first instance, or the court of appeal,
as the case may be, is compelled to grant recognition in the
event of all the prescribed formalities having been fulfilled.
In order to avoid any doubt on this question, it would be
desirable to insert a formal provision to that effect in the Code.
In this connection, it may be well to mention parapraph 6
of the Resolution concerning freedom of association, which
deals with similar circumstances, in the following terms :
The acquisition of legal personality by employers' and workers'
organisations should not be made subject to conditions of such a
character as to restrict freedom of association as hereinbefore
defined.
By this paragraph, the International Labour Conference
intended to prevent the grant of legal personality to trade
unions from serving as a pretext to introduce by devious means
the system of previous authorisation in trade union matters.
It may also be asked whether it is wise to compel trade
unions to acquire legal personality. It will be remembered
that in a great number of countries, e.g., the United States,
the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries,
the trade unions play a part of the very highest importance in
the sphere of industrial relations and of collaboration with the
authorities, without enjoying legal personality. The reason
for this is that, in all these countries, the authorities .have taken
the line of conferring on all unions existing under common law,
so far as association is concerned, the same rights as upon
legally recognised unions.
Furthermore, the trade unions are justified in their apprehension that the conditions which are sometimes attached to
recognition may cause them to fall under the control of the
public authorities ; and that civil liability, which is a corollary
of recognition, may in the long run prove to be a serious handicap
to their freedom of action.
In other words, in countries in which trade unions are able
to choose between a system of freedom pure and simple, based
on the ordinary law of association and on the Constitution,
and a special régime making recognition conditional on nu-

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

merous basic and formal conditions, trade unions have generally
preferred uncontrolled and unprivileged freedom to a system
of regulation accompanied, it is true, by certain advantages
from the point of view of assets, but also by numerous disadvantages.
It would appear that there were certain special reasons for
such a policy being adopted in Greece. It has already been
emphasised that a certain number of articles of the Civil Code
—in particular, Articles 69 and 105 summarised above, which
might be fully justified if they applied to other organisations with
legal personality—give rise to very serious objections if they
are applied to trade unions. The exemption of the unions
from the application of Chapter IV of the Civil Code concerning
legal personality would free them also from the application of
these particularly controversial provisions. It is a matter of
experience that occupational organisations should have a
status of their own and should not be assimilated to other
organisations with legal personality.
The Mission ventures therefore to recommend that trade
unions should be free to decide whether or not to acquire legal
personality, or that, in default of such a solution of the question,
a provision should be introduced into the legislation to the effect
that trade unions should automatically be recognised if the
conditions laid down for their registration have been fulfilled.

*
*

*

Such are the recommendations which the Mission ventures
to put forward on the question of trade unions. In its view
these recommendations are calculated to contribute to the
rapid renaissance of a free and united trade union movement
truly representative of the working class, a movement capable
of shouldering the heavy responsibilities which are laid upon
it as regards both the regulation of conditions of labour and the
reconstruction of the country.
Once the trade union problem is solved, a basis will have
been laid for a solid system of collaboration between the employers' organisations and those of the workers, and also
between these organisations and the public authorities.

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277

It is clear that, in view of the existing situation of the
country, the standard of life of the people and the level of
social security and protection, the rapid reparation of the
enormous damage caused by the World War, the occupation
and the civil war will depend directly upon the combined
efforts which can be made by the Government and the occupational organisations in order to raise national production and
the productivity of labour to the highest possible level.
Failing such co-operation and, still more so, in the event
of a cleavage between the Government and the workers, the
rapid recovery of the country may be seriously compromised.

CHAPTER VII
ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES
In the previous chapters suggestions are made with regard
to the various labour problems which the I.L.O. Mission had
to study. To solve these problems, social policy should work
more particularly through the public administrative services of
Greece, and their competence and efficiency are indispensable
to the success of this policy.
In practice, several of the measures already suggested in
this report involve changes in the structure or methods of the
administrative services competent to carry them out. When
the administrative reforms regarded as necessary were directly
bound up with special problems dealt with in one of the previous
chapters, definite suggestions have already been made in respect
of them. This was the case in Chapter III (Employment and
Employment Organisation), in Chapter IV (Conditions of
Employment) and in Chapter V (Social Insurance). But in
other cases, where the changes which it seems desirable to
make in the structure or working of the public administrations
concern several spheres of labour legislation, it seemed preferable, in order to avoid repetition, to deal with these administrative problems in a special chapter.
The title of this chapter should not, however, lead to confusion. It was not the purpose of the Mission to carry out a
general study of the organisation of administrative services in
Greece and of the reforms that such organisation might require.
This problem has already been dealt with or is at present being
dealt with by other international missions. The F.A.O. Mission
for Greece had already in 1947 made general recommendations
concerning the principles of the administrative system as a
whole, and more specific recommendations as to the administrations competent in the field of agriculture. 1 At present the
1
Report of the F.A.O. Mission for Greece, op. cit. ; see Recommendation 8 3 : "Reform of the Civil Service", p. 56, and Appendix I,
§§ 66 to 69, pp. 163-165.

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279

American Mission for Aid to Greece is on the spot to recommend
from day to day the administrative improvements which it
considers desirable, and, on its suggestion, various practical
measures have been taken lately, particularly a reduction of
staff for the purpose of relieving the budget.
The intention of the I.L.O. Mission is to limit its suggestions
to the specific field of labour administration. Nevertheless,
it must recognise that certain general principles applying to the
whole of a healthy and efficient national administration are
also very important in the special field of labour administration.
Problems of Administrative Machinery
The efficiency of an administration is primarily governed
by the general measures taken to organise it on a rational
plan which will facilitate its working. This plan should aim
at a satisfactory distribution of duties between the various
departments and services, provide means for easy collaboration
between those departments and services which deal with subjects
related to each other, establish speedy methods of work which
avoid any unnecessary administrative complications, ensure
that each service is conveniently installed materially, account
being taken of the character of its duties, and that it has suitable
material equipment, and lastly, provide each of these services
with a personnel the strength of which is in proportion to the
extent of its responsibilities.
The term " rationalisation " is generally used to describe
the whole body of measures which are calculated, by various
material and functional arrangements, to obtain from an
administration the maximum results with the personnel available. The individual capacities of the personnel constitute a
second element which will be dealt with later.
In practice a number of the suggestions made in the previous
chapters involve rationalisation measures : in Chapter III to
facilitate the indispensable collaboration between the employment offices and the unemployment insurance funds ; in Chapter
IV to increase the efficiency of labour inspection services by
careful delimitation of the various districts, account being
taken of the means of transport available and of readjustment
of the strength of each office to the extent of its duties ; in
Chapter V, a remodelling of the system of social insurance is
proposed which would simplify its organisation and internal

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

administration, would do away with unnecessary administrative
complications, and increase the available resources through
the more economical working of the institutions.
During its stay in Greece, the Mission had not the necessary
time to carry out a detailed investigation of the working of all
the administrative services which have to deal with labour
problems. It is therefore not intended to indicate, service by
service, what measures of rationalisation should be applied to
increase the efficiency of each of them. The present remarks
will be limited to certain cases by which the Mission was particularly struck in the course of its investigations. These cases,
however, may give an opportunity of indicating certain methods
which would facilitate the working of the services in question
and might possibly be applied in other cases.

REGROUPING OF RESPONSIBILITIES

The efficiency of the public services might doubtless be
increased, and at the same time expenditure decreased, if there
was a certain regrouping of the responsibilities which are at
present shared by several departments, in order to entrust
these responsibilities exclusively to the administrative authority
most directly concerned. It is a fact that the division of
responsibilities involves useless duplication of work, and—a still
more serious consequence—may endanger the application of
systematic plans for the solution of a given problem.
This case arises in the sphere of vocational training. 1 Here
responsibilities are divided between the Ministry of Education
and the Ministry of National Economy, whereas the Ministry
of Labour, which is responsible for organising the labour market,
and which therefore is directly interested in the training of
labour, is deprived of any authority in this matter, and thus
has no opportunity of taking the initiatives necessary to balance
the employment market.
In respect of social insurance, though most of the funds
are supervised by the Ministry of Labour, others are under the
supervision of another ministry : Merchant Marine, Public
Health, Interior, Education, Justice. This division of responsibility makes collaboration between funds extremely difficult
1

See Chapter I I I , pp. 77-78.

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281

and stands in the way of the establishment of a minimum
uniformity in their rules. 1
In another sphere, that of labour statistics, division of
activities leads to serious deficiencies in the information which
is indispensable for conducting social policy. The setting up
of a central statistical service at the Ministry of Labour has
been contemplated, but it has not yet been organised, and
failing a service responsible for co-ordinating the data collected
by the various special services, these data have not been worked
out and in practice cannot be used.
Thus in many cases the Mission was unable to obtain anything
like accurate and complete data on various aspects of the social
and economic situation, such as would be essential to an understanding of certain problems. Examples of such data are the
number of workers employed and the number unemployed,
both totals and by occupational category, the number of persons
insured and those entitled to benefits from social insurance
funds, the number of trade unions, average wages, and real
wages in relation to fluctuations in the cost of living. The
Mission was only too frequently obliged to make do with fragmentary data or approximate estimates.
It would therefore seem indispensable to establish as soon
as possible a labour statistics service which might supply the
necessary basis for any analysis of the situation, and make it
possible to estimate the results and effects of the measures which
it is intended to take.
The Mission fully realises the difficulties inherent at the
present time in the compiling of labour statistics. It is for
this reason that it would perhaps be necessary to confine the
task to the most essential data, and particularly to eliminate
any duplication ; close collaboration with the other statistical
services existing in various departments of the public administration is absolutely necessary. It would often be possible to
obtain indirect information based on data provided by other
activities, e.g., the activities of social insurance institutions.
The complexity of the social insurance system makes this task
somewhat difficult, but even under such conditions satisfactory
results might be obtained if the programme of work is carefully
prepared. Furthermore, an efficient statistical service for
social insurance is at present of primary importance, in view
1

See Chapter V, p. 205.
19

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

of the difficult financial situation of most of the social insurance
institutions. The authority responsible for supervision would
require regular and speedy information so as to be kept informed
of all that happens in these institutions.
As has already been indicated in Chapter IV in respect of
industrial safety and hygiene, a centralisation of statistics of
occupational accidents and occupational diseases would be
necessary for the planning and execution of preventive measures.
Definite suggestions have been made there for the establishment
of a system which would co-ordinate the data.
The centralisation of employment statistics is also indispensable for supplying a basis for planning the labour market. Thus,
all statistics concerning the number of undertakings in each
branch of activity, the number of wage earners, the number of
hours worked within the statutory time-table and overtime,
as well as the number of jobs available and applications for
employment registered in the employment offices should be
collected by the central labour statistics service and co-ordinated
by it.
The same service should also centralise all other statistical
information on labour problems, such as that concerning wages,
labour disputes, etc.
With regard to the more general elements of the social and
economic situation, a knowledge of which is after all indispensable for shaping social policy—such as movements of population, variations in prices, or data connected with public health—
it would hardly seem possible for the central labour statistical
service itself to assume responsibility for statistics on these
subjects. It would at least be necessary for some ministerial
department to be responsible for compiling regularly, according
to the best methods, collating and publishing statistics concerning these questions, which the Ministry of Labour would
thus have at its disposal. In respect of an enquiry into the
cost of living—indispensable basis for estimating the real value
of wages—the Mission was particularly struck by the large
number of official services which prepared certain statistical
information (Ministry of National Economy, Ministry of
Reconstruction, Bank of Greece, etc.) and also by the diversity
of the methods applied and therefore the discrepancies in the
results. The concentration of this work in the hands of those
best qualified to work out the best methods would therefore
seem particularly desirable.

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283

TRANSFER OF DUTIES TO A N E W SPECIALISED BODY

It is probable that if it proceeded to examine the actual
allocation of duties between the various ministerial departments, the Greek Government would, in several cases, be led
not to concentrate exclusive competence for a question in the
hands of one of the administrations which are at present responsible, but to set up a new specialised body to carry out those
duties. There is at least one case in which the Mission thinks
it should definitely suggest the creation of special machinery,
and that is with regard to all disputes arising out of industrial
relations.
The experience of many countries has shown the advantages
of specialised courts to judge labour disputes, which require of
the judges technical and psychological knowledge in a field
which is foreign to most ordinary judges. Furthermore, access
to these special courts can be made particularly easy and
therefore procedure accelerated so that the disputes may be
settled as quickly as possible and without expense to the
litigants.
The desirability of creating labour courts has already been
mentioned in Chapter IV as a means of lightening the duties
of the labour inspectorate by entrusting to these special courts
the settlement of disputes concerning the interpretation of
contracts of employment, which now often have to be settled
by the inspectors, at least at the conciliation stage. 1
The competence of these same courts might perhaps be
extended to a wider field. It would seem desirable more
particularly that they should extend their activities to the
settlement of disputes arising in respect of social insurance.
Act No. 6298 of 1934, which set up the I.K.A., provided for the
establishment of administrative insurance courts to settle disputes concerning liability to sickness insurance or pension
insurance, the fixing of the contributions to be paid, and the
refusal, reduction or suspension of benefits ; but these courts
do not operate. Again, Act No. 118 of 1945 concerning unemployment insurance allows the person concerned to appeal
to the governing body of the fund. This system is not satisfactory, for the fund thereby becomes simultaneously judge
of the dispute and a party to it. Therefore, in order to remedy
1

See p. 107.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

the above-mentioned deficiency (in sickness insurance and
pension insurance) and to correct the anomaly of the system
of jurisdiction in unemployment insurance, it would seem
desirable either to set up administrative social insurance
courts or to transfer to the labour courts the power of jurisdiction in respect of social insurance. Although it is not
the current practice to empower labour courts to deal with
social insurance disputes, the second solution is suggested
as preferable, in view of the fact that in Greece the centres
of population which require one or the other kind of special
courts are widely scattered, and to avoid the expense of a
double specialised judicial machinery. The extension of the
competence of labour courts to disputes concerning social
insurance does not seem likely to involve serious disadvantages,
even in Greece where social insurance covers not only wage
earners but also independent workers. The position is much
worse if the persons concerned have no possibility of applying
to a court access to which is easy and free of charge.
PROVISION FOR SYSTEMS OF CO-ORDINATION

Even if a certain regrouping or transfer of duties is carried
out, there will still be many cases in which the solution of
labour problems will require the co-operation of several ministerial departments, since such problems must be tackled from
various angles. On the other hand, the Ministry of Labour
will continue to deal with questions which, in certain respects,
affect a wider sphere.
These cases call for the organisation of systems of liaison
which at present often seem to be lacking or not to work
in a sufficiently regular manner.
The need for such systems has already been indicated in
the previous chapters in respect of particular problems. For
instance, the setting up of an interdepartmental liaison committee
has been proposed in order to ensure close collaboration of the
competent services for the protection of children and young
workers. 1 Doubtless a similar organisation might be useful
for the study of problems of vocational guidance and for giving
effect to such programmes of vocational guidance as may be
drawn up, for this question necessarily has both educational
1

See above, p. 134.

ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

285

and occupational aspects and should have its place in the school
curriculum as well as in the employment office. The schools
and the employment service, the Ministry of Public Education and the Ministry of Labour should concern themselves
with it.
The same need for co-ordination exists in respect of health
and public hygiene. As indicated in Chapter V, the system
of sickness insurance should be closely associated with the
activities of the medical services of the Ministry of Public
Health and of the Ministry of Social Welfare.1 Joint plans
should be drawn up to put the necessary institutions at the
service of the population. More particularly, when it is a case
of organising for a scattered population, like the rural population,
or of a campaign against tuberculosis or other social diseases,
it is in no way necessary to provide separate institutions for
those entitled to social insurance and those who are not entitled
to it. A liaison committee, on which the Ministry of Labour
(Directorate of Social Insurance), the Ministry of Health and
the Ministry of Social Welfare were represented would therefore
be useful for a rational allocation throughout the country
of hospitals, dispensaries, sanatoria and preventoria, and for
the organisation of their use according to the requirements of
the population.
In the case of preventive health and public hygiene measures,
liaison should certainly also be extended to other departments :
the Industrial Hygiene Service of the Ministry of Labour, the
School Medical Inspectorate of the Ministry of Public Education,
the Social Investigation Services of the Ministry of Reconstruction, and perhaps others also are engaged in the investigation
of health questions, and co-ordination of their activities
is desirable. This would be less a case of establishing liaison
by committee than of instituting through administrative
channels systems of exchanges of information and of mutual
services. This system would aim particularly at centralising
in the most appropriate services—probably in the Ministry of
Public Health—all statistical or other information concerning
health and, on the other hand, it would facilitate for each
of the departments concerned the use of the general health
services (holiday camps, etc.) administered by another
department.
1

See p p . 1 9 9 - 2 0 1 .

286

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

STAFFING PROBLEMS

Staff reduction in the civil service was a problem which
was very much discussed during the stay of the I.L.O.
Mission in Greece, and for budgetary reasons a considerable
reduction had been decided on shortly before its departure
from Athens.
In most of the administrations with which the members of
the Mission had to deal there was not an obviously excessive
number of personnel ; indeed, in certain of the services which
were most important for the solution of labour problems, there
was an obvious shortage. This was particularly the case for
external services such as empioyment offices and labour inspection services. In fact, in Chapters III and IV it is suggested
that the staffs of employment offices and inspection services
should be increased so that these services may be able to carry
out all their tasks.
This shortage might, however, be made good in part by
providing the personnel already employed with better working
facilities. Suitable premises and improved equipment would
considerably increase the output of each individual. As a
result of destruction during the war and other causes of social
upheaval, the ministerial departments and external services
visited by the Mission frequently did not have those facilities.
The social insurance services, for example, were scattered over
several buildings. Their offices, which were far too small,
could not accommodate their files, which sometimes had to be
put away in badly lighted corners. Some of these services,
whose daily work consisted of making calculations, were generally short of calculating machines and the statistical services
were also short of these machines. Only a very few of the employment offices had punching machines and up-to-date filing
cabinets. Most of them had to put up with primitive equipment. There were not even any typewriters in many of
the employment and inspection offices which the Mission
visited.
In these circumstances, it would be unjust to compare the
efficiency of any official of the Greek administration with the
output per unit in administrative services provided with
modern equipment.

ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

287

Staff Regulations
Rationalisation of the administrative system may provide
conditions favourable to efficiency. Nevertheless, the main
factor for any efficient administration is to be found in the
intrinsic value of the personnel itself. Certain elements of the
staff regulations may assist in ensuring that the State has a
competent body of officials. The analysis that follows only
deals with the elements of these regulations which may serve
this purpose.
RECRUITING AND PROMOTION

In order to obtain proper selection of entry into the administrative services, methods of recruiting should tend to define
exactly the qualifications necessary for each post and to seek
objectively which candidate is most fitted to fill the post in
the light of these qualifications. In. short, recruiting should
be based on merit.
The Greek Act No. 560 of 1945 on the organisation of the
Ministry of Labour clearly defines the qualifications required
for each post in the Ministry and it lays down as a fundamental
condition for admission of all candidates that they should
succeed in an examination (section 19, paragraph 1 (g)). Similar
rules were applied in respect of the recruiting of personnel for
I.K.A., in accordance with section 19, paragraph 5 of Act
No. 6298 of 1934. Since examination or competition is the-best
means of ensuring recruiting by merit and of eliminating outside
influences, it seems regrettable that this has been done away
with by the Legislative Decree of April 1946, in so far as posts
in the Ministry of Labour are concerned, and that this method
was suspended in the case of many persons engaged in 19461947 for the staff of the I.K.A. social insurance funds.
As it is only by practical experience that the capacity of a
candidate may be verified or found deficient, a period of probation before the final appointment of the official is certainly a
wise administrative regulation. Section 20, paragraph 3, of Act
No. 560, adopted in 1945, provided for a probationary period
of one year before a candidate who had been accepted could be
finally appointed. This provision was also cancelled by the
Legislative Decree of 30 April 1946. Thus, the two safeguards

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

for efficient recruiting were abolished just when the heavy
tasks incumbent on the Greek administration made them
particularly desirable.
So far as transfers and promotions are concerned, Act
No. 560 of 1945 lays down very definite regulations for each
post, and these regulations have remained in force. If equitably applied, they may give reasonable prospects of promotion
to capable officials.1
VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR TECHNICAL DUTIES

In branches of the service requiring technical knowledge
sound methods of selection should be supplemented by systematic vocational training for newly admitted candidates, as well
as probationary or refresher courses for staff already appointed.
Such training is often indispensable when an official is promoted
and may also assist those persons who have been several years
in the service to revise the administrative routine and keep
themselves in touch with new technical methods.
A scheme of training with several stages has therefore been
proposed in Chapter IV so far as labour inspectors are concerned. Similar plans would also be useful for the training
of the staffs of employment and vocational guidance services
and for the staff of social insurance funds.
Act No. 560 (section 28) contains a provision for this purpose,
the value of which should be stressed. Every year, three
officials of the Ministry of Labour may be given leave with pay
for two years in order to supplement their theoretical or practical
specialised knowledge in foreign countries. Under the same
section, leave of one year may be granted without pay but
with retention of seniority. The Mission hopes that these
provisions may be widely applied.
SECURITY OF TENURE

The guarantee of security of tenure given to the official
by his legal status is not only useful as a moral protection
1

Nevertheless, in Chapter IV some relaxation of the regulation
requiring university degrees for promotion to the higher ranks of the
labour inspectorate is suggested in cases where practical experience may
be regarded as the equivalent of a degree for the purpose of assessing
capability (see p. 97).

ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

289

against political pressure ; it is also an indispensable factor in
obtaining an efficient administration. No administrative service
can be fully efficient unless it has an experienced staff, and certain
technical services in particular, such as inspection, placement
and social insurance, require a fairly long period of practice
before the necessary experience is fully acquired.
The provisions of the Constitution, and those of Act No. 560
as regards the status of officials of the Ministry of Labour in
particular, give the official a very great measure of security in
normal times. Under Act No. 560 permanent officials can be
dismissed only in clearly defined cases and with suitable guarantees of impartiality in determining the causes giving rise to
the dismissal. Apart from superannuation, these causes are the
following : suppression of a post by law, duly certified physical
or mental disability, unfitness by reason of an act coming under
criminal law, disciplinary measures, unjustifiable absence from
duty.
Notwithstanding these provisions, Emergency Decrees having
the force of constitutional law have three times since the war
authorised the breaking of contracts of public officials for
purposes of weeding out staff.
The first Decree, dated 2 April 1945, only concerned officials
appointed during the occupation and during the dictatorship
of 1936-1941.
The second, dated 21 August 1946, was in force for four
months from that date, and the third, promulgated on 8 January
1948, will remain in force as long as the seditious movement
lasts. Both were made applicable to permanent and temporary
officials of the public administration, strictly so-called, as well as
to the staffs of public institutions, services controlled by a
Ministry, State-subsidised institutions, State banks and cooperative organisations.
In the Act of 1945, the criteria for removal from their service
were in the main professional qualifications and considerations of
national interest. The 1946 measure still took some account of
professional criteria along with criteria of a political character.
Those of the 1948 Decree are essentially political. The Decree
of 1946 authorised dismissals for the following four reasons :
(a) conduct incompatible with the qualifications required for
t h e post, during t h e period between t h e suspension a n d t h e reestablishment of t h e p a r l i a m e n t a r y régime ;

ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE

291

SERVICES

SALARIES

In order to provide for satisfactory recruiting for public
services, it is necessary that the latter should offer future
candidates a position equivalent to that which their qualifications might enable them to obtain in private employment or
in an independent capacity. In order that officials at present
employed should devote all their activities to their public
duties, it is also necessary that their salary should be adequate
so that they should not be tempted to supplement it by outside
work.
TABLE XXV.

BASIC SALARIES OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS

1

(in drachmae)

Grades

Director-General . . . .
Director, 1st class . . .
Director, 2nd class . . .
Head of section, 1st class
Head of section, 2nd class
Reporter
Secretary, 1st class . . .
Secretary, 2nd class . .
Attaché
Clerk, 1st class
Clerk, 2nd class
. . . .
Chief messenger
. . . .
Messenger, 1st class. . .
Messenger, 2nd class . .
Messenger, 3rd class . .
Messenger, 4th class . .

Pre-war
1939

9,430
7,475
6,716
5,980
5,060
4,370
3,726
3,174
2,507
2,185
1,725
2,070
1,552
1,380
1,150
920

Quotient
increase
At 11 Nov. September ofbetween
1944
1947
1939
and 1947

8,800
7,600
7,200
6,400
6,400
6,000
5,600
5,200
5,000
4,800
4,800
5,000
4,600
4,600
4,400
4,400

750,000
600,000
550,000
500,000
470,000
430,000
385,000
375,000
360,000
320,000
300,000
320,000
300,000
280,000
260,000
240,000

80
80
82
84
93
98
103
118
144
146
174
155
193
203
226
261

1
Table drawn up on the information supplied to the Mission by the Bank of Greece.
Special allowances for families, seniority, etc., are not included.

Table XXV shows salaries by grades in the pre-war period,
at the time of the first readjustment which followed the reconversion of the drachma and after the readjustment of September
1947 which had just come into force when the Mission arrived
in Greece. There had been other readjustments during the
interval in June 1945, in January, February and June 1946
and in February 1947.
The quotients of increase given in the right-hand column
of the table show the principle which inspired the adjustment

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(b) voluntary and consistent collaboration with the occupying
and invading forces in the country in order to assist them or to
obtain advantages for them ;
(c) any participation or collaboration in the seditious movement
between 3 December 1944 and 12 February 1945 and any action
or participation in action, since that date and during the period of
validity of the Decree, against public order or in support of those
who take part in sedition or for the attainment of objectives hostile
to the State or the nation ; or
(d) any lack of university or technical or professional qualifications, any unworthy conduct in the performance of duties or any
incapacity to carry them out due to physical, moral or mental
defects.
The 1948 measure added the condition of " loyalty " to the
conditions imposed for appointment to public office and
authorised the dismissal of officials and assimilated staff for
disloyalty, any person being regarded as disloyal who has
co-operated in various seditious or other acts enumerated in
the Decree (sabotage, espionage, revealing confidential
documents, etc.) or in attempts to commit the same acts, or
who has been deliberately in touch with persons engaging in
such acts, or who " believes the words of those who have
prepared and at present lead the rebellion, is inspired by antinational conceptions or in any way carries out propaganda in
favour of the Communist Party or those who co-operate with
it". *
It is obvious that in view of the exceptionally serious
situation existing in the country, only the Government responsible for the fate of the country has competence to determine
the nature and extent of the measures which it regards as
necessary for purging the civil service and similar administrative
bodies. From a purely technical point of view, however, the
I.L.O. Mission is bound to note that the successive staff cuts
based on causes of a non-professional character which have been
carried out in the Greek administration have necessarily reduced
the strength of the services. In 1947, the administrative services
with which the Mission was in contact seemed already, by
reason of the successive purges, to be suffering from the hasty
recruitment of new and inexperienced staff to replace officials
dismissed by reason of their political views.

1

Cf. Messager d'Athènes, 8 January 1948.

292

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

of salaries and which was also applied in the regulation of wages
and salaries in private undertakings, namely, to provide primarily for basic needs which are the same for all. 1 Therefore,
the increase in salaries is relatively less in the higher grades.
The same principle was even more drastically applied at the
time of the readjustment of 1944. The difference between the
highest and lowest salaries in the scale, which was proportionately more than 1 to 10 before the war, was brought down
to a proportion of 1 to 2 in 1944 and in September 1947 increased
only to a proportion of 1 to 3.
At a time of material difficulties, the value of this principle
from the social point of view cannot be disputed. Its enforcement nevertheless has contributed towards developing a situation which involves obvious disadvantages for the efficiency
of the administration.
Although the present statistics on cost of living do not
make it possible to estimate exactly the actual value of salaries
in the 1947 scale S it would seem reasonable to think that in
the case of most categories, salaries are still far from having
recovered their pre-war value.
In order to make up their inadequate remuneration, Greek
officials have been led, particularly in recent years, to take on
additional work and even to look for work outside the administration. In the case of those belonging to the higher grades
of the Ministry of Labour, this subsidiary work has often taken
the form of remunerated membership of committees, councils,
and other official or semi-official bodies and of participation in
the administration of social insurance funds.
The Government has recognised the existence of this situation by several times intervening in order to restrict multiple
employment. More particularly, Decree No. 146 of 11 October
1946 laid down that officials (or employees of local administrations, of public institutions, of foundations, etc.) who occupy
more than one post are only entitled to draw the salary for one
post, at their own choice, and half the salary of the second post.
Circular No. 268.603 of September 1947 limited to 75 per cent.
of the basic salary the allowances that officials are authorised
to receive for services on councils and committees. Nevertheless, although these measures somewhat restrict the attraction
1
See the section concerning wages and salaries in private undertakings in relation to the increase in the cost of living, Chapter II,
pp. 37-45.

ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

293

of subsidiary duties and offices, they do not remove either the
causes or the disadvantages of multiple employment.
The participation by officials in committees, councils and
other official or semi-official administrative bodies is indeed
quite normal when the activities of the body in question come
within the competence of the service to which the official
belongs, when membership in this body is an integral part of
his duties and his official salary covers the additional activities
involved. The disadvantages are seen as soon as the subsidiary
activities are remunerated, for there is then the danger that
subsidiary activity or activities may absorb the energy which
should be given to the main duties and may lead to neglect
of these duties. Furthermore, specific disadvantages may be
involved by certain forms of multiple employment. As already
said above in the chapter on social insurance 1 , a conflict of
competence arises when the chairmanship of insurance funds
supervised by the Ministry of Labour is held by an official
belonging to that same Ministry.
So long as the salaries of officials are inadequate to satisfy
their requirements, and tempting opportunities arise to supplement a reduced salary by subsidiary work which is to hand,
it can hardly be hoped that a spirit of exclusive devotion to
public duties will inspire the administrative services. On the
contrary, there is a danger that the present system may operate
unfavourably for the most conscientious, that is to say, those
who devote all their energies to their duties.

1

Cf. Chapter V, p. 206.

CHAPTER V i l i
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

In this Report the Mission has attempted to present as clear
a picture as possible of the labour problems which confront
Greece at the present time. It might have been possible to
prepare a simple list of recommendations, with brief explanatory
comments, but this would not have met the needs of the situation. In the view of the Mission it was essential not only to
put forward proposals, but also to give a broad outline of the
problems and the conditions in which they arise.
It has not been easy for the Mission to find its way through
the many legal texts which regulate conditions of labour and
social insurance, or to obtain the full and accurate factual
information which is necessary as a basis for practical proposals.
Others who are interested in the welfare of Greece will encounter
the same difficulties as they study the problems, and it is hoped
that the foregoing pages will help them to see and to appreciate
the conditions, the difficulties and the possibilities.
The Report has been prepared primarily for the information
of the Greek Government, since it was at the Government's
invitation that the International Labour Office undertook its
study of the problems. No doubt a statement of the recommendations arrived at by the Mission would have been sufficient
for the needs of the Government, which is in a position to
know and understand the problems with which the country is
faced. It will be realised, however, that the Government will
be unable to solve all the problems by its own efforts. Other
elements in Greece will need to play their part in overcoming
the immense difficulties of the present situation, and it is
essential for them to see the picture as a whole and in all its
details. Moreover, international aid and understanding will
be needed if Greece is to achieve satisfactory conditions of
labour and improve the standards of life of the population.
Many valuable reports haye been published with regard to
the economic, political and social problems of Greece, but so

GENERAL

CONCLUSIONS

295

far there has been no extensive examination of the vital questions of conditions of labour and social insurance. The present
Report, therefore, should help to fill a gap in the international
documentation on Greek affairs.
Any Mission should understand its subject before it begins
to explain it, but in Greece today there is so much to understand and so much to explain. Greece has passed through a
dictatorship, fought a war, endured an enemy occupation,
experienced a liberation and suffered from prolonged civil
strife. It has known the miseries of cold, starvation and
disease, witnessed widespread destruction of life and property,
and felt the bitterness and despair of fratricidal struggles.
It has, moreover, been a prominent victim of the play of
international forces—both economic and political. Greece is
not unique in its sufferings ; other countries too have had
trials no less difficult to bear. But unless the events of recent
years in Greece are kept clearly in mind, it is impossible either
to understand the difficulties which have to be surmounted
or to suggest the means by which they can be overcome. In
every corner of the field there are problems which arose or
were aggravated by the dictatorship, the events of the war
years or the struggles which have followed the liberation.
Emergency measures which were taken to deal with situations
that were getting out of hand have in their turn created new
problems. Solutions which might have been possible in normal
circumstances have been unthinkable because of national or
international political rivalries.
Greek labour legislation will stand comparison in any international company, and Greek conditions of labour, though
leaving much room for improvement, give no cause for despair.
There is nothing wrong which cannot be put right, provided
that the understanding, the will and the means are forthcoming. In 1929 an official of the International Labour Office,
who visited Greece in connection with the technical assistance
given to the country by a delegation from the Health Committee of the League of Nations, noted conditions of labour
which were in many respects apt to be prejudicial to the health
of the workers. In several cases, particularly with regard to
the hours of work and the employment of children in industry,
these conditions have been considerably improved. If it is
remembered that during the interval Greece has undergone
trials which made any action in regard to social conditions

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

particularly difficult, the fact that these improvements have
been brought about gives reason for hope that progress will
also be made in regard to the other matters.
Some of the steps recommended by the Mission might be
taken immediately ; others would have to wait upon an improvement in conditions—economic and political, national and
international. The Mission has not contented itself with suggesting immediate measures for coping with an emergency situation, but has also recommended remedies which may take a
considerable time to put into effect and which may involve
fundamental changes. While it may not be feasible to work
to a master plan covering the whole range of the subjects
involved, it should nevertheless be possible to have a broad
idea as to the principal objects which it is intended to achieve.
Emergency measures and temporary expedients which may be
necessary today should not create new problems for tomorrow,
but should help to pave the way for the more lasting solutions
which it will be possible to apply when conditions are more
favourable.
T H E POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SETTING

When looking into the problems of labour and social insurance legislation, the Mission was brought face to face at every
turn with economic and political considerations. Since these
problems have to be seen against the economic and political
background, and since in that respect there is so much confusion
today, the Report has included a separate chapter on the
economic and political situation. The chapter does no more than
provide a rough sketch of the present position in Greece. Others
have written about these matters more fully and there is ample
material for those who would study social policy in Greece in
relation to its economic possibilities. Social progress in Greece,
as in other countries, will meet with many economic obstacles,
but it is necessary to be clear as to whether the main difficulties
are temporary or whether they are inherent in the Greek
situation.
As has already been pointed out in the Report, the Greek
standards of living have always been low. Greece is not endowed
with immense natural resources, either in minerals or in other
raw materials. Its forests are sparse and its soil is shallow.
It has, however, an extensive coastline and an excellent

GENERAL

CONCLUSIONS

297

climate. Fish and fruit are abundant, and if material comforts
are low compared with those of the more highly organised
industrial countries, it must be admitted that many of the
material needs are less keenly felt.
Most of the pressing difficulties which beset Greece today
in the economic and industrial sphere could be overcome if
world conditions became more stable and if the internal political
conflicts in Greece could be resolved. But is it only a question
of escaping from the present emergency ? Must Greece remain
a poor country with low standards of living even when more
normal conditions return ? Greece is not naturally a rich
country, but the Mission has formed the opinion that much
can be done to develop its resources and to increase the products
both of its agriculture and of its industry. This is not the place
to enlarge upon the theme, but it is evident that the future of
social policy in Greece will depend upon whether this development takes place or not.
EMPLOYMENT AND EMPLOYMENT ORGANISATION

Some consideration had also to be given by the Mission to
the problems of employment and of employment organisation,
both because they belong to the field of labour legislation and
because the employment situation affects the whole problem
of protecting and improving conditions of labour. Is employment increasing or otherwise ? Are the difficulties temporary
or lasting ? Here again the difficulties are aggravated by the
present abnormal conditions. There seems to be no compelling
reason, at bottom, why Greece should have a long-term employment problem of any magnitude.
No little difficulty was encountered by the Mission in obtaining a clear picture of the extent of unemployment in Greece
today. Accurate figures were not available and estimates were
conflicting. It is, however, evident that there is widespread
unemployment and underemployment at the present time, and
that the situation can hardly be expected to right itself until
economic activity becomes more normal. In the meantime
the Mission feels that steps might be taken to extend the employment service organisation and to increase its capacity • for
dealing with the problems.
It is also clear that one of the difficulties which Greek
industry will have to face is not that of a manpower surplus but
20

298

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

that of a shortage. In many branches of industry there are not
enough skilled workers available, and there is no evidence that
they will come forward in appreciable numbers unless energetic
steps are taken to develop the facilities for vocational training,
in industry and in training centres, both for young workers
and for adults.
In present circumstances the Greek Government may find
it necessary, as a temporary expedient, to encourage a certain
amount of emigration.
Recognising this, the Mission has
suggested ways in which guided emigration might be organised
with adequate safeguards for all concerned.
Emigration,
however, could not be regarded as a satisfactory solution for
the employment problem ; the real remedy lies in restoring
Greek economic activity to normal and developing the country's
resources.
CONDITIONS OF LABOUR

In its examination of the legislation regulating conditions
of labour the Mission took into account as far as possible the
concrete problems which presented themselves in the course
of its visits to the most important industrial centres, brief
and limited though they unfortunately were, and those which
were brought out in interviews with representative groups of
the persons concerned. The Mission gave its attention not
only to the texts of the laws but also to the actual conditions
of industrial work, whether in the factories or in the numerous
and varied small workshops. It looked into the problems of
home workers and of special categories, such as dockers, railwaymen and seamen.
The suggestions made by the Mission in regard to conditions
of labour do not pretend to be in any way exhaustive. The
choice of the subjects regarding which recommendations have
been formulated was inspired by two considerations. In the
first place, it was thought necessary to tackle the problems
which seem to have particular practical importance for the
wellbeing of wage earners and salaried employees. Secondly,
it was hoped that some help might be given towards adapting
the legislation of the country to the standards laid down in
international labour Conventions already ratified by Greece or
in Conventions which have not yet been ratified but ratification
of which seems possible and desirable in the not too distant future.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

299

Accordingly recommendations have been made in regard
to three main groups of problems.
The first group relates to the general structure of labour
legislation, with special reference to the need for co-ordinating
the legal provisions under the main headings or possibly codifying the whole body of labour legislation ; the need for abandoning the system under which laws dealing with different subjects
are amended in one and the same legal text ; and the need for
a simplification of the legal provisions so as to render them
more easily intelligible to those wTho are affected by them or
who may have to help to apply them.
The second group of recommendations consists of measures
concerning the system of inspection to ensure the enforcement of
labour legislation. These measures would imply both a strengthening of the inspectorate and a reorganisation of the inspection
services.
In the third group the Mission has included a number of
recommendations concerning various problems connected with
the actual conditions of labour. Reference is made in particular
to measures relating to hours of work, rest periods, holidays
with pay, health and safety, home work, protection of children
and young workers, protection of women workers and measures
affecting dockers, railwaymen and seamen.
SOCIAL INSURANCE

A subject to which the Mission attached special importance
was the study of the system of social insurance. It was not
easy to obtain a clear and exact picture of the present position
of the social insurance funds, since they are numerous and for
the most part unconnected one with another. The description
given in Chapter V can therefore only be regarded as a first
general survey. If the International Labour Office were asked
for further and more precise suggestions in regard to the social
insurance system, more detailed and far-reaching studies
would need to be made. In particular, a great deal more statistical information would be needed as a basis for the necessary
actuarial estimates. It is evident, however, from the enquiries
which the Mission was able to make that a complete overhaul
of the system should be undertaken and that in the meantine
a number of transitional measures might well be put in hand.
The Mission's analysis of the essential problems of social

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

insurance in Greece does not enter into all the details. A full
examination would demand a more exhaustive study and
would call for a longer period of preparation than the Mission
was able to give. It follows that the conclusions arrived at by
the Mission cannot cover the whole field.
The most serious problem is to maintain the financial
equilibrium of the insurance funds and particularly of the
I.K.A. This problem is closely related to that of the whole
system of insurance and of its organisation and its administration. The Mission realises that the present situation does not
favour the immediate introduction of a new system which
would solve all these problems at once, and that the way to a
complete solution would need to be prepared by a number of
transitional measures. It is therefore important to examine
carefully all the possibilities of a gradual approach towards
such a new system. Above all, any measure needed to deal
with questions which do not permit of delay should not make
the final solution more difficult.
If is suggested by the Mission that steps should be taken as
soon as possible to consider and carry out various measures
which emerge from Chapter V, and which may be divided into

two parts. The first group consists of the measures which seem
to be the most urgent ; the second comprises those which might
pave the way for a complete solution, such a solution being held
over until the country enters upon a period of economic and
political stability.
ORGANISATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES

It has been mentioned that the Mission continually found
itself brought up against economic and political considerations.
Another problem which forced itself upon the Mission's attention over and over again was that of the administrative arrangements by which labour legislation is carried out. On many
occasions the Mission found that accurate information was not
available because the arrangements for providing it did not
exist, or that necessary action could not be taken because the
competent services were not sufficiently well equipped. It will
be appreciated, however, that Greek labour legislation will
not provide its full benefits unless efforts are made not only to
supplement and simplify laws but also to improve the administrative machinery for applying them.

GENERAL

CONCLUSIONS

301

In Chapter VII attention is drawn to some of the problems
which the Mission encountered and to some of the remedies
which might be applied. In this connection stress might well
be laid upon the need for improving and co-ordinating the
statistical services of the various departments. At present it
is often necessary to make rough estimates where complete
figures should be available, or to make calculations and deductions on the basis of figures from several sources which do not
agree. Examples of the problems in regard to which improved
statistical information is needed have already been given ; if
satisfactory solutions are to be found for these problems, it will
be necessary to provide both more extensive figures and figures
which are more reliable. Such information is necessary not
only for the use of the Government departments, but also for
the guidance of the employers' organisations and trade unions,
the education of the Greek electorate and the enlightenment
of public opinion abroad. Too much emphasis cannot be laid
upon the importance of facts and figures, whether as indispensable raw materials for those who have to shape policy or as
informative materials for those who wish to understand the
true nature and extent of the problems.
Broadly sp.eaking, the recommendations put forward in
Chapter VII relate to the steps which might be taken to strength
en the Government services for handling labour problems,
to reallocate duties as between various departments and to
arrange for closer co-ordination between departments which
share the responsibility for the same subjects. In this connection the Mission has thought it necessary to speak not only of
measures of reorganisation but also of problems which affect
the position and outlook of the officials. The Mission met
officials in Greece whose efficiency and spirit of service could
not be surpassed, but it will have been seen from Chapter VII
that much still remains to be done before the civil service as
a whole is strong and experienced enough to cope with the
growing tasks which modern developments are thrusting upon it.
T H E TRADE UNION SITUATION

Perhaps the most tangled skein which the Mission had to
unravel was the situation of the Greek trade union movement.
There are a considerable number of trade unions in Greece,
and a large percentage of the Greek workers, at least in the

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

most important industries, seem to be organised. It was, however,
impossible to discover either the exact number of bona fide
trade unions in existence or the number of their members.
The unions form part of the General Confederation of Labour,
and one of the most vexed questions in Greece since the liberation has been the composition of the Confederation's Executive
Committee. This is one of the many problems which the Mission
found to be complicated by political considerations.
On the surface it is difficult for an outside observer to
understand why it has not yet been possible to constitute an
Executive Committee elected in accordance with the rules of
the Confederation and recognised as the legal authority for
carrying on the Confederation's affairs. An Executive Committee
was elected at the Eighth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress
in 1946 but was afterwards deposed and replaced by a Provisional Executive, which was appointed by the court of first
instance. Political considerations played a large part in the
election of the Executive at the Congress and political considerations dominated the negotiations which preceded the appointment of the Provisional Executive which is now in office. Why,
it may be asked, should the executive committee of a national
trade union confederation be composed on the basis of political
tendencies ? Why should its members not represent either
districts of the country or the various industries ? The trade
union movement had be restarted in many other countries
after the war. Did they meet with similar difficulties, and if
they overcame them, why has the Greek trade union movement
been unable to do so ? For the last few years both the
Government and the courts have intervened from time to time
in the efforts to reconstitute the trade union movement and
provide it with a duly elected and legally constituted leadership.
Why was such intervention necessary ? And finally, the
outside observer may wonder whether any other course could
have been taken and why the whole problem was not settled
long ago.
It is to be hoped that Chapter VI of the Report has thrown
some light on these problems. An attempt has been made to
set out the sequence of events as simply as possible and at
least to describe what happened, even if it has not always been
easy to explain why. There is a thread running through the
whole story and it will be seen that the attempts to restart the
Greek trade union movement since the war have been influenced

GENERAL

CONCLUSIONS

303

at every stage by national and international political rivalries.
Within the Greek trade union movement a struggle for power
has been going on, and it is that which provides the key to
many of the events of recent years.
How long it will be before the Greek General Confederation
of Labour is properly consolidated and able to control its own
affairs is impossible to foresee. But sooner or later a way out
of the present unsatisfactory situation must be found. It will
be better for all concerned when the intervention of the Government in the affairs of the trade unions can cease and when
recourse to the courts can be reduced to a minimum. The Act
which gave the Minister power to regulate the appointment
of a provisional executive at the close of the war should have
been used once only, and after that the trade union movement
should have been able to proceed under its own steam. But
events have led to one intervention after another by the Government and by the courts. The time must come when the trade
unions carry out their elections and expulsions by their own
means, in accordance with their own rules, and under their
own responsibility, and when the rights of trade union members
are safeguarded by the rules and respected in fact. It may
well be that the present compulsory contribution payable to
the trade unions by the workers will once again be replaced by a
voluntary contribution.
The Mission would not advise the
abolition of the compulsory contribution if the effect would
be to ruin the Greek trade union movement and to throw back
its development for decades, but it nevertheless sees serious
drawbacks in the system of compulsory contributions and
would welcome the time when the Greek trade union movement could rely upon funds collected by its own efforts and
freely contributed by members who believe in trade unionism
and are prepared to give it their active support.
If it is to play its full part in helping the country into a
period of greater happiness and prosperity, the Greek trade
union movement will need to place greater emphasis upon its
industrial or "trade union" activities and allow its political
preoccupations to fall into their proper place. The task of
reconstructing Greece will be immense. Sacrifices, discipline
and productive effort will be required, and the Greek trade
union movement can contribute greatly towards making the
needs of the country known and understood amongst the
workers, securing to the workers their share in the shaping and

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LABOUR PROBLEMS ÏN GREECE

execution of policy, and mobilising them for the Herculean
effort that will be required.
It was evident to the Mission that the Greek trade union
movement has still much to learn about the place of trade
unionism in the modern State and the tasks which it is called
upon to perform. Anything that can be done to help the movement to obtain the necessary experience by the organisation
of educational facilities for trade unionists, the provision of
literature, the loan of advisers from abroad and the organisation
of visits by Greek trade union officials to foreign countries for
the purpose of studying their problems and methods, would
be worth while.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

If time had permitted, the Mission would have included
in the Report a separate chapter on industrial relations. The
organisation of strong trade unions is only one step in a long
process, for it is necessary not only for the workers to organise
themselves but also for the workers and the employers to
develop in common the procedures by which the relations
between the two sides are to be conducted. When employers
and workers begin to enter into collective agreements it is soon
found necessary to establish rules and methods for the negotiation, revision and observance of the agreements, for the settlement of the differences and disputes which inevitably arise, and
for recourse to conciliation and arbitration from outside when
the parties are unable to agree. When the machinery for
collective bargaining and the settlement of disputes has been
established, the need is felt for arrangements to cover consultation on other subjects, at the industry level and in the individual
factories.
At the 30th Session of the International Labour Conference
(Geneva, 1947) a Resolution was adopted on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise and to bargain
collectively, and it is anticipated that a Convention on this
subject will be adopted by the Conference in 1948.1 Other
subjects to be considered by the 1948 Session of the Conference
1

See Chapter VI, p. 210, footnote 1.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

305

are the application of the principles of the right to organise and
to bargain collectively, collective agreements, conciliation and
arbitration, and co-operation between the public authorities
and employers' and workers' organisations. The subjects now
before the International Labour Conference cover the broad
field of industrial relations, and when the projected Conventions
have been adopted there will be in existence an international
code on these subjects, which the respective countries will be
invited to apply.
In Greece there are considerable gaps in the arrangements
for the conduct of industrial relations, but good progress in
building up the machinery of collective bargaining and conciliation had already been made before the war. The effect of the
war and the occupation was to "freeze" all developments in
this field, and it is only recently that progress has been resumed
by the signing of new collective agreements.
An Act of 16 November 1935 x made provision for the
conclusion, registration and observance of collective agreements. The Act provided that collective labour agreements
might be concluded between employers, employers' organisations and workers' organisations, and that such agreements
should regulate the conditions to be fulfilled by contracts of
employment in any given occupation and district. The collective
agreements were to be drawn up in writing and copies were to
be deposited with the clerk of the justice of the peace in the
locality in which they were concluded. A copy was then to be
forwarded by the clerk to the Ministry of Labour. Provision was
made for the extension of such agreements to other districts, and
it was also provided that a collective agreement to which the
employers of three fifths of the workers in a given occupation
and district were parties could be made binding by order of
the Minister of Labour upon all employers and workers in that
occupation and district.
Another Act of the same date, i.e., 16 November 1935, is
the principal Act concerning the settlement of collective labour
disputes.* The Act provided that any dispute regarding conditions of labour or their modification which arose between
several employers, an employers' association or an employer
of more than ten workers, on the one hand, and a workers'
1
2

Cf. L.S., 1935, Gr. 7.
L.S., 1935, Gr. 9.

306

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

organisation or a group of more than ten workers, on the other,
was to be regarded as a collective labour dispute and settled
compulsorily in accordance with the procedure laid down in
the Act. When a dispute occurred, a competent official of the
Ministry of Labour, whether requested by the parties or not,
was to enquire into the causes of the dispute and to attempt
to reconcile the opposing points of view. If a settlement was
arrived at, it was to be signed by the parties and by the competent
official, and copies were to be deposited with the clerk of the
justice of the peace and forwarded to the Ministry of Labour,
as in the case of collective agreements. If the attempt at
conciliation failed, and if the dispute affected more than 25
workers, the matter was to be referred to an arbitration board in
accordance with further provisions set out in the Act. The
arbitration board was to include representatives both of the
employers and of the workers.
Nearly a year later, on 12 August 1936, the first two general
collective agreements, fixing minimum rates of pay for all wage
earners and all salaried employees, were concluded. Act No. 99
of 26 August 1936 ratified the two general agreements and
gave them the force of law. The Act provided that the signatures of the central employers' and workers' organisations
might replace those of all the other organisations thereby
bound, and that signed agreements might be deposited with
the clerk of the court at Athens instead of with the clerks of
the courts in other districts.
Act No. 866 of 22 September 1937 legalised all the agreements which had been concluded down'to that date. The Act
extended for six months the force of those which had expired
on that date, gave the Minister the right to extend agreements
for six-monthly periods, and provided that the General Confederation of Labour might sign agreements as representing all
the workers in Greece. The Act further provided that the
two general agreements applied to all workers, whether belonging to an organisation or not, except those covered by a special
agreement, that these agreements were to be applied without
regard to the system of wage payment, and that agreements
would be binding not only upon the workers and undertakings
concerned but also upon the employers' and workers' organisations to which they belonged.
Further provisions were included in Acts Nos. 1367 and
1435 of 1938, concerning the designation of the most represen-

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

307

tative workers' organisations, the right of organisations to
sign agreements, and the powers of the Minister and the most
representative organisations in regard to the conclusion of an
agreement, its extension, its duration and the conditions in
which it was to apply.
Collective agreements, therefore, could either be concluded
by the parties or might result from arbitration awards. At the
outbreak of the war there were some hundreds of collective
agreements in force—two general agreements, which had the
force of law and applied to the whole of the country, and others
applying to a whole industry or to a whole district, to a single
occupation within a district, or to one or more undertakings.
It will have been seen from Chapter II that during and
after the war the wages of workers and salaried employees
were regulated by Government action. 1 The first steps towards
a reintroduction of collective bargaining were taken when new
wage scales were introduced in November 1947 as a result of
prolonged negotiations, in which representatives of the Government, the employers and the trade unions participated. Following these negotiations, the first post-war collective agreements
were signed in Athens on 4 November 1947 by the representatives of the employers' organisations and the General Confederation of Labour in the presence of the Minister of Labour.
There were two agreements, one applying to salaried employees
in private employment and the other to wage earners. Both
agreements set out new scales which represented adjustments
of the minimum rates contained in the collective agreements
concluded before the war. 2 The agreements were subject to
the approval of the Government and were to remain in force
for six months as from 20 October 1947.
The Act of 16 November 1935 concerning the settlement
of collective labour disputes has likewise remained in abeyance.
This Act, together with the Act concerning collective agreements, restricted the number of strikes and lockouts and
afforded a certain measure of protection for the workers by
giving collective agreements and arbitration awards the force
of law. It would seem, however, that the unstable and rapidly
1
Note, however, the collective agreements concerning the mercantile
marine which were signed in London during the war (see above, p. 150).
2
For further details regarding the new agreements, see Chapter I I .
There were also a number of supplementary agreements, e.g., for bank
employees, for the highest and lowest paid categories of salaried
employees, and for apprentices.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

changing economic conditions of the country have made it
impossible to apply the system of conciliation and arbitration
which was introduced under the Act.
It is to be hoped that as the country settles down to normal
it will be possible to develop a system of collective bargaining
once again and to set in motion machinery for the settlement
of labour disputes by peaceful means. The decisions which the
International Labour Conference is expected to adopt in regard
to these matters should provide a model upon which a new
system in Greece might be built up stage by stage. There are
interesting possibilities of development in this field, in view
of the small number of factories engaged in mass production
and the predominance of medium-sized factories and small
workshops. It will be important to see how the Government, the employers and the workers can adapt the current
ideas and practices of industrial relations to the special conditions of the Greek industrial system. Sound industrial relations
are essential if employers and workers alike are to make their
full contribution towards Greek recovery.
T H E CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT

It was pointed out in the introduction to this Report that
although the Mission was unable to make a detailed study of
the co-operative movement in Greece, it met representatives
of co-operative organisations and gathered information on the
movement's problems. The contacts which the Mission of
necessity had with the Greek co-operative movement gave it
an insight into various problems which, though not of direct
concern to labour legislation, are not unrelated to it, since they
closely affect the conditions of life and labour of the working
population. It may not be out of place, therefore, if some
reference is made to the position of the co-operative movement
in this concluding chapter.
The co-operative movement is widespread in Greece, both
in the country districts and in the towns. According to figures
supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture, 7,611 agricultural
co-operatives were registered at the end of December 1946,
of which 6,076 were actually functioning. The figures of agricultural co-operatives include about 120 co-operatives for
fishing. The most numerous classes were : 4,672 credit cooperatives, 914 processing co-operatives, 475 sales co-operatives

GENERAL

CONCLUSIONS

309

and 114 rural supply co-operatives. In the towns, the cooperative movement comes under the Ministry of Labour.
According to figures supplied by this department, 5,391 urban
co-operatives had been registered up to 14 October 1947,
though some of these, including some building co-operatives,
had gone out of existence. The urban co-operatives consist in
the main of (a) occupational co-operatives, and (b) consumers'
co-operatives. The first group comprises co-operatives for
production—especially among small tradesmen—commercial
co-operatives for the organisation of transport, imports and
exports, and co-operatives for the provision of services, while
the second group includes 190 consumers' co-operatives, with
91,000 members, affiliated to the Union of Consumers' Cooperatives, and 21 other co-operatives with 10,000 members.
By its steady growth—which may not have been clearly
perceived—the movement has attained such a degree of development and maturity that certain of its branches might give
valuable support to any Government action directed towards
the stabilisation and better organisation of the economic system
with a view to improving the conditions of the workers.
In the first place, because of their intimate and permanent
contact with the daily problems of the workers, the co-operative
organisations, together with the trade unions, are in a position
to give expression to the needs of the people, and their experience
as economic organisations gives them a special authority in
this respect. It is therefore suggested that the co-operative
organisations might be given an opportunity to express their
views through appropriate channels in regard to national
economic policy.
Secondly, the extent of their organisation and the experience
and abilities of many of their administrators provide a justification for inviting or encouraging them to play a more important
part in certain operations which are essential to the economic
life of the country, such as the distribution of credits to
farmers, the collection and marketing of agricultural produce
and the distribution of foodstuffs and rare or rationed
commodities.
In regard to the general credits allocated to agriculture,
experience in many countries has shown that rural credit cooperatives constitute an effective, reliable and relatively cheap
machinery for their distribution ; there are therefore obvious
advantages in making use of them for this purpose (providing,

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

however, that the credit operations are clearly separated from
the commercial operations).
In the case of the collection of agricultural produce, it
might be considered whether national organisations should
not be created for olive oil, wine and fresh fruit, such as have
already been formed for corn, cotton, currants and tobacco.
Since the consumers' co-operatives and, more generally,
the purchase co-operatives, are non-profit-making distributive
organisations, full use should be made of them in the general
interest in any action taken with a view to arresting the rise
in prices or providing for the equitable and efficient distribution of certain rare articles. The consumers' co-operatives
should also receive their fair share of foreign currency and
credits for their purchase abroad. For reasons similar to those
mentioned above it might be desirable to make use of the
agricultural co-operatives whenever appropriate for the distribution or use of tractors, machinery and spare parts from abroad.
Even if this meant giving them special facilities, this would not
confer a privilege upon them but would give them a responsibility and a function in the public interest.
But the co-operative organisations will only be able to give
effective support to Government action if they are able to
preserve (and in some cases to regain) the characteristics on
which their effectiveness is based. In other words, their functioning, management and development should not be hindered
by rules which are foreign to the rules and methods of the
co-operative movement. Generally speaking, any provisions
which hamper this free functioning and development should
be removed from laws and regulations. In particular, the rural
credit co-operatives should be allowed to decide on their own
responsibility what loans should be granted to their members.
In the absence of any system enabling credits to be granted
to co-operatives other than agricultural co-operatives, it would
be useful to set up two separate funds, which could be
administered by a committee attached to the Ministry of
Labour. One of these funds would promote the development
of urban occupational co-operatives and the other the development of consumers' co-operatives.
Finally, in view of the importance of the co-operative
movement in the economic and social structure of the country,
it would be desirable for the Government to encourage either
directly or indirectly (by means of grants to central co-operative

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

311

organisations) the teaching of co-operation, the spread of
co-operative principles and the training of officials and staff
for the co-operative movement.
AGRICULTURAL WORKERS

As a general rule the legislation relating to labour and
social insurance in Greece does not apply to agricultural workers.
It was pointed out in the introduction that the Mission had not
been invited to study the problems of agricultural labour and
that it was not equipped to do so. Clearly, however, the conditions of work on the land should receive consideration in any
plans for the development of labour and social legislation.
The International Labour Organisation has always given close
attention to the problems of the agricultural workers, and has
followed these questions through its Permanent Agricultural
Committee and through the Agricultural Section of the International Labour Office.
Several of the Conventions adopted by the International
Labour Conference relate specifically to agriculture. They
include the Minimum Age (Agriculture) Convention, 1921, the
Right of Association (Agriculture) Convention, 1921, the
Workmen's Compensation (Agriculture) Convention, 1921,
the Sickness Insurance (Agriculture) Convention, 1927, the
Old-Age Insurance (Agriculture) Convention, 1933, the Invalidity Insurance (Agriculture) Convention, 1933, and the
Survivors' Insurance (Agriculture) Convention, 1933. None
of these Conventions has so far been ratified by Greece. Agricultural problems have also been dealt with in a number of
Recommendations adopted by the Conference.
In view of the importance of agriculture in the Greek
economy 1 , it may be assumed that in the plans for the reconstruction of Greece special consideration will be given to the
legislation affecting those who find their living on the land.
In this connection the possibility of bringing the conditions in
Greece into line with the standards laid down by the International Labour Conference might be further examined.

1

See Chapter II, pp. 23 et seq.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

In putting forward this Report the International Labour
Office is aware of the fact that certain subjects have hardly
been mentioned and that others have only been treated in a
broad general way. A thorough examination of the whole
field would have necessitated more time than the Mission had
at its disposal and would have unduly delayed the preparation
of the Report. The Office remains, however, at the disposal of
the Greek Government, and of the employers' and workers'
organisations, for further consultations.
The Office recognises that the more far-reaching developments in the sphere of labour and social legislation will only
be possible when the present emergency has passed, but it
nevertheless feels that much could be done even now to prepare
the way for those developments, and that a number of immediate
or transitional measures could be taken. In the long run,
however, the progress of social change in Greece will be bound
up with the development of its economic activity.
The Office hopes that the Report will contribute towards
the solution of the labour problems of Greece by making the
extent and nature of the problems better understood both in
Greece and in the world outside, and by focusing attention on
the measures which might be taken to deal with them. The
Office, however, has no power to carry out the recommendations ; it can only examine, explain and recommend. It is
evident that any action which may be taken to follow up the
Report is a matter for consideration in Greece itself. But it
should not be overlooked that the responsibility for the development and application of Greek labour legislation does not rest
with the Greek Government alone ; a share of that responsibility
also falls upon the organisations of employers and workers.

CHAPTER IX
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS CONTAINED
IN THE REPORT
A. Employment and Employment Organisation
In order to give workers greater opportunities of employment and provide the economic system with manpower sufficient for its present and future needs, the following measures
are suggested :
Employment

Planning.

(1) Arrangements should be made for the establishment
of methods of tripartite co-operation so as to give employers
and workers a share in the development of long-range employment plans (p. 53).
(2) The Ministry of Labour should be fully associated
with employment planning and the development of economic
programmes (p. 53).
Planned

Emigration.

(3) Consideration should be given to the desirability of
drawing up an emigration programme, prepared jointly by the
Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in consultation with employers and workers, with special reference
to:
(a)
(b)

(c)
(d)
(e)

the best means of facilitating the entrance of Greek
nationals into manpower shortage countries ;
the determination of the population desirous of emigrating and available for emigration without prejudice to the
needs of the Greek economy ;
the general principles which should govern emigrant
selection ;
the introduction of an emigrant training programme ;
the possibility of State assistance to emigrants (p. 61).
21

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(4) Advantage should be taken of the present international
discussions on manpower and emigration to make known the
desires of Greece on this matter (p. 60).
Organisation of Employment.
(5) An employment office shouîd be opened as soon as
possible in every district in which a local branch of the Unemployment Fund is already operating (p. 65).
(6) When Act No. 118 is extended to new areas, an employment office should be opened simultaneously with or in
advance of the local branch of the Unemployment Fund (p. 65).
(7) Efforts should be made to do away with the defects
of the present system of compulsory public employment offices,
special attention being paid to strengthening the positive
functions of the employment offices—that is to say, the development of opportunities for employment, the use of employment counselling for unemployed workers and better methods
of selection and placement—as well as to raising the professional
level of the staff of employment offices (p. 65).
Compensation for Termination of Contract.
(8) Consideration should be given to the desirability of
repealing section 9, paragraphs 6 and 7, of Act No. 118 of 1945,
which compel the employer to pay a fixed sum to the Unemployment Fund in respect of each wage earner who is dismissed
(p. 70).
(9) Subject to the daily rates of unemployment benefit
being readjusted on the basis of the wages actually paid, consideration should be given to the possibility of revising the statutory period of notice for termination of contracts of employment and the amount of the compensation payable by the
employer to the dismissed person ; the employer's obligation
might possibily be restricted to the payment over a certain
period of a sum which would bring the daily unemployment
benefit up to the level of the wage or salary paid at the time
of dismissal (p. 70).
Vocational Training.
(10) Vocational training should be encouraged by revising
the curriculum of the higher classes of elementary schools and
secondary schools, with a view to the incorporation of elements

SUMMARY OF

RECOMMENDATIONS

315

of instruction and practical work designed to give children a
respect for and taste for manual work (p. 74).
(11) Act No. 5197 should be amended so as to make the
Minister of Labour responsible for all questions concerning
vocational training (p. 77).
(12) Efforts should be made to reopen and re-equip, as
rapidly as possible, the existing trade schools and to open new
schools or training centres where needed (p. 78).
(13) Comprehensive legislation for the regulation of apprenticeship should be passed (p. 78).
(14) Under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour, a
tripartite apprenticeship council should be set up to determine
the trades in which a system of apprenticeship is necessary, to
advise the Ministry on general and specific apprenticeship standards and to assist the Ministry in eliciting the co-operation of
employers and workers for the development of experimental
apprenticeship programmes (p. 78).
(15) Local tripartite apprenticeship committees should be
set up to supervise the progress of apprentices and conduct
tests (p. 79).
(16) As soon as budgetary considerations permit, State
support for trade continuation schools should be increased
(p. 79).
(17) A vocational retraining programme for adults should
be formulated and implemented so as to facilitate the full rehabilitation of the unemployed and underemployed in nationally
useful employment (p. 79).
B. Conditions of Employment—The Regulations
and their Enforcement
In order to make protective labour legislation more effective,
the following measures are suggested :
General Structure of Labour Legislation.
(18) Labour legislation should be consolidated either as a
whole, or in each of its main branches (pp. 87, 110 and 129).
(19) The system of introducing amending or supplementary Acts containing amendments to a variety of other Acts
or Decrees should be abandoned (p. 89).

316

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(20) The existing legislation should be revised with a view
to simplifying its provisions and making it more easily
intelligible and enforceable (pp.89 and 115), or adapting it to
changed circumstances (p. 138).
Organisation of the Inspection System for Enforcing
Legislation.

Labour

. (21) The central authority in the labour inspectorate should
be restored (p. 93).
(22) The higher staff of the inspectorate should be strengthened so that a fully qualified inspector can be placed in charge
of each office and so that capable supervisors may have opportunities of promotion (p. 97).
(23) Women should have equal access with men to all
posts in the inspectorate (p. 97).
(24) The professional qualifications of the inspection staff
should be improved by a proper system of selection and by
the organisation of vocational training and refresher courses
(p. 97).
(25) An inspection handbook should be prepared for the
use of inspectors (p. 106).
(26) Pamphlets should be prepared summarising the labour
regulations for the benefit of employers and workers (pp. 106
and 111).
(27) The inspection service should as far as possible be
relieved of additional duties, foreign to the normal duties of
inspection, which inspectors are at present required to undertake (p. 106).
(28) The staff of the inspection service should be increased
in number (p. 107).
(29) Inspection areas might be rearranged and travel allowances readjusted so as to facilitate visits to undertakings
(p. 108).
(30) The Labour Inspection Council should be revived
(p. 108).
(31) Joint bodies should be set up in undertakings to assist
in the enforcement of labour legislation (p. 109).

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

317

Special Problems of Employment in Industry and Commerce.
(32) On two points of detail the legislation on hours of
work in industry should be brought into harmony with Convention No. 1, 1919 (p. 110).
(33) Only the labour inspectors should have power to
give permits for overtime (p. 111).
(34) The practice of giving persons employed in factories
and workshops additional work to do at home should be prohibited (p. 111).
(35) Overtime rates of pay should be uniformly fixed at a
reasonable level (p. 112).
(36) The effects of suppressing the rest period when work
is organised in three shifts should be studied, and, if necessary,
the system of a compulsory break of at least half an hour during
the working day should be restored (p. 113).
(37) As far as possible, the standard hours of work in
commercial establishments should be made uniform (p. 115).
(38) As far as possible, the right of workers in different
occupational groups to a weekly rest of 24 consecutive hours
should be made uniform (p. 116).
(39) On certain points of detail, the legislation on holidays
with pay should be amended so as to permit of ratification of the
1936 Convention (p. 119), and the legislation should be extended
to cover domestic servants and home workers (p. 119).
(40) A progressive programme of action to improve industrial safety and hygiene in small workshops should be drawn
up and gradually applied (p. 121).
(41) An effective system of registering industrial accidents
and a similar system for occupational diseases should be established or re-established so as to ensure that exact data on these
questions are collected, centralised, collated and published
(p. 121).
(42) The system of compulsory periodical medical examination for workers should be extended to all occupations where
it is found necessary (p. 124).
(43) Representatives of the workers in undertakings should
be associated in the task of organising and applying measures
for industrial hygiene and safety (pp. 109 and 124).

318

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(44) A programme for the progressive regulation of home
work should be drawn up and applied in stages (p. 126).
(45) The statutory minimum age for admission to employment should be standardised on the basis of 14 years (p. 131).
(46) An interdepartmental co-ordination committee should
be set up for the protection of children and young workers, with
the special task of co-ordinating measures concerning elementary education, public assistance and admission to employment (p. 134).
(47) The system for admitting children and young persons
to employment and for examining their fitness for employment
should be tightened up and gradually extended to all young
persons under 18 years of age (p. 136).
(48) Special arrangements should be made for the vocational
guidance and placing of children and young persons (p. 137).
(49) So far as possible, day vocational courses for young
persons should be organised and the working day of children and
young persons attending such courses should be reduced below
the normal figure (p. 138).
(50) It should be made compulsory for all social insurance
funds to grant maternity benefits in accordance with the provisions of Convention No. 3, 1919, ratified by Greece (p. 139).
(51) Social institutions for looking after the children of
working women should be developed (p. 139).
(52) Women workers should be provided with opportunities for extending their general and vocational education and
receiving training for housework (p. 140).
Problems concerning Dockers, Railwaymen

and Seamen.

(53) The preparation of regulations for giving effect to
the Convention of 1929 concerning the marking of weight on
packages transported by vessels, ratified by Greece, should be
completed as quickly as possible (p. 141).
(54) The list of dockers registered at ports should be revised
as soon as possible so as to increase the number of dockers
possessing work books, and consideration should be given to
the measures to stabilise dock labour which might be taken once
harbour reconstruction has been completed (p. 145).

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

319

(55) As soon as the situation has become normal, an attempt
should be made to overcome the difficulties which have prevented the application of the eight-hour day to railways in
accordance with the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention
1919, ratified by Greece (p. 147).
(56) Steps should be taken to ensure that in the case of
the medical examination for fitness for employment at sea,
the interval between successive examinations should not exceed
one year in the case of persons under 18 years of age covered by
the 1921 Convention, which Greece has ratified (p. 149).
(57) Vocational training facilities for seamen of all grades
and categories should be extended as much as possible (p. 151).
(58) Efforts should be made to bring the legislation protecting seamen into harmony with the Conventions adopted by
the International Labour Conference, more particularly by
ratifying as soon as possible the Officers' Competency Certificates Convention, 1936, and the Shipowners' Liability (Sick
and Injured Seamen) Convention, 1936, and considering whether
„steps could be taken to secure the enforcement of the Conventions adopted at Seattle, in the texts of which Greece is mentioned as one of the important maritime countries whose ratification will help to bring the Conventions into force (p. 151).
C. Social Insurance
Urgent Measures.
In order to meet immediate problems the following steps
should be taken :
(59) A new common scale of daily benefits for sickness and
unemployment insurance should be drawn up to apply to all
funds, and those benefits should be based on the wages actually
paid (p. 198).
(60) The same qualifying period should be laid down for
pension insurance in all the main funds and the possibility of
" contracting in " should be abolished (p. 201).
(61) A maximum total for all pensions should be fixed as a
percentage of final earnings, particularly in the case of accumulated pensions (p. 202).
(62) It should be laid down that an insured person should
not be insured against the same risk with more than one main

320

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

fund ; in the case of subsidiary insurance restricted to pensions,
it should be laid down that no person may be a member of more
than one subsidiary fund (p. 198).
(63) The building of dispensaries should be undertaken
(p. 199).
(64) The reduction of the employer's share of contributions
in respect of workers in the public services should be abolished
(p. 205).
(65) The I. K. A. should be granted compensation for the
cost of free medical assistance to Government officials, either
through contributions or in the form of a lump-sum grant
(p. 205).
(66) The autonomy of social insurance institutions should
be re-established (p. 206).
(67) Social insurance should be made the responsibility
of a single ministry (p. 205).
(68) Close co-operation should be established between all
social insurance funds to eliminate overlapping and to simplify
their internal administration so as to reduce administrative
costs (p. 197).
(69) The same medical boards should be responsible for
certifying invalidity for all funds (p. 202).
(70) For the settlement of disputes arising out of social
insurance, the administrative courts for which provision was
made in Act No. 6298 of 1934 should be put into operation;
these courts should be made responsible for the settlement of all
disputes arising out of the working of social insurance in general
(p. 283).
Transitional Measures.
The following steps should be taken to pave the way for the
introduction of an effective social security system :
(71) There should be complete concentration of sickness
insurance institutions on the one hand, and unemployment
insurance institutions on the other ; at the same time, the
territorial decentralisation of sickness insurance should be
considered (pp. 198 and 200).
(72) The conditions for granting and fixing the amount
of pensions in the main funds should be revised (p. 201).

SUMMARY OF

RECOMMENDATIONS

321

(73) Subsidiary funds should be transformed into supplementary pension insurance institutions (p. 198).
(74) The tuberculosis risk should be shared by the social
insurance funds and the public health services (p. 201).
(75) The system of social taxes and the methods of their
collection and distribution should be revised (p. 204).
(76) Contributions in all branches of social insurance and
all funds should be revised and reallocated (p. 205).
(77) There should be complete unification of social insurance administrative services (pp. 197, 204 and 205).

D. The Trade Union Situation
(78) As soon as conditions permit, there should be a return
to the principle of non-discrimination in union matters, i.e., to
the principle that all workers, without distinction whatsoever,
should enjoy freedom of association (p. 264).
(79) The political independence of the trade union movement should be respected (p. 265).
(80) Every worker paying the compulsory trade union
contribution should have the right to participate in trade union
elections. Unless all workers can be given the opportunity to
vote in trade union elections, at a suitable time and subject
to the fullest guarantees, the compulsory contribution should
be abolished (p. 267).
(81) The legislation relating to trade unions should be
codified (p. 268).
(82) A return to normal conditions and the complete
restoration of constitutional guarantees should automatically
involve the repeal of all texts which imply any discrimination
in regard to occupational organisations (p. 270).
(83) With a view to ensuring the autonomy of occupational
organisations, which is a necessary complement to the freedom
of association of individuals, the trade unions themselves should
in normal times maintain order at their meetings and discuss
trade union questions in complete freedom (p. 271).
(84) The executive committee of an occupational organisation should not be suspended, even provisionally, by administrative authority (p. 272).

322

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(85) Trade unions should be excluded from the scope of
Article 69 of the Civil Code (p. 274).
(86) Trade unions should be free to decide whether or not
to acquire legal personality. Failing this, a provision should be
inserted in the legislation stipulating that trade unions shall
be recognised automatically if they fulfil the conditions for
registration (p. 276).

E. Organisation of Administrative Services
Administrative

Machinery.

The following measures are suggested with a view to increasing the efficiency of the administrative authorities competent
in labour matters, by rationalisation of their working methods :
(87) Responsibilities at present shared by several departments, more particularly as regards vocational training, the
supervision of social insurance funds and the compilation of
labour, population and cost-of-living statistics, should be centralised in the ministerial department most closely concerned
(p. 280).
(88) Labour courts should be set up for the settlement of
all disputes arising out of contracts of employment and possibly
also of disputes concerning social insurance (p. 283).
(89) If it proves impossible to avoid a certain sharing of
responsibility, some system of co-ordination should be organised,
either by means of a committee (more particularly as regards
the protection of children and young persons, vocational guidance and the organisation of public health services) or by more
elastic administrative machinery as, for instance, in the case
of preventive medicine (p. 284).
(90) Improved accommodation and appropriate equipment
should be provided for all services and particularly for outside
services, such as employment offices, labour inspection offices
and the branches of social insurance funds, without prejudice
to any increases in staff found indispensable (p. 286).
Administrative Staff.
The following measures, among others, might be taken to
ensure efficiency of the staff :

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

323

(91) Methods of recruitment and promotion should be
established whereby staff would be selected on the basis of
merit ; in particular, the system of an entrance examination
and a period of probation before confirmation of appointment
should be reintroduced (p. 287).
(92) Vocational training and practical training courses
should be organised for newly recruited staff and refresher
courses for older staff (p. 288).
(93) The maintenance of an experienced staff should be
guaranteed by providing security of tenure based on merit
(p. 288).
(94) In so far as financially possible, civil servants should
be guaranteed a salary appropriate to the qualifications required
and the responsibilities undertaken in the service, it being
understood that in return they should devote their full time
to the duties of their office (p. 291).

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I
OBSERVATIONS OF THE GREEK GOVERNMENT
ON THE REPORT OF THE
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE MISSION
General Observations
I
Any intellectual effort, whether it be simple or highly scientific,
implies the adoption of some fundamental notions both as to method
and as to the nature of things.
The Report of the International Labour Office Mission evidences
an unquestionably sound notion as to how the worth of legislative
measures should be estimated, but if the estimate is to be realistic
it is essential that consideration be given to the conditions under
which, as well as to the way in which, the legislation is applied.
It must be acknowledged that the members of the Mission took
trouble to collect information of all kinds, and particularly statistics,
about the various phases and aspects of our national life ; they did
so with all the objectivity that could be desired and with a fine sense
of their duty as international officials. The Report of the Mission
stresses three social factors of primary importance—economic,
industrial and political—in relation to certain other factors in the
national life of our people—housing, health and education.
A thorough understanding of all these factors is of course
necessary for the study of the legislative provisions.
When appreciating the situation in Greece, however, consideration must be given not only to the economic, industrial and political
but also to the cultural factors. The cultural factor is the Greek
tradition, whose powerful psychological influence is the key to the
character of the Greek people.
Apart from questions of method, the ideas underlying some of
the general terms used in the Report need careful examination.
Some of these terms do not make for objective judgment by third
parties and they should be clarified at the outset if misunderstandings
are to be avoided. 1
The following terms may serve as examples : " civil war ",
"political insecurity", " r i g h t " , " l e f t " , " r e v o l u t i o n " . Others
of the same kind are to be found here and there. The explanations
which follow seem indispensable because the drama which has been
unfolding in Greece for so long, and which entails enormous sacrifices
both in human lives and in material, is due very largely to the ability
1
Certain passages of the chapters in question have been modified
in the light of these observations (I.L.O. note).

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

with which the enemies of Greece describe events. The vehement,
sustained and systematic anti-Hellenic propaganda, which is skilfully carried on by Communist circles on behalf of a so-called
democratic ideal and progress, has so confused the minds of people
abroad that it has only recently become possible for Greece to correct
wrong impressions, thanks to the visits she has received from foreign
personalities and committees, and to the proud spirit of her people,
who fight for national independence, liberty and democracy.
The nature of the " civil war ", in the sense in which the Report
apparently uses this term, has been clearly defined by various commissions of the United Nations and in particular by the Balkans
Committee now operating in Greece. These commissions have taken
all the relevant facts into consideration, and have not been content
with superficial information. All aspects of the problem have been
clarified in a manner that leaves no room for any doubt whatever.
Thanks to the work of these commissions, the world knows
exactly what is going on in Greece today. Since the International
Labour Office has not undertaken a special enquiry to ascertain all
the facts and so to form its own opinion, it would, in our view, be well
advised to rely on the conclusions arrived at by the United Nations.
If the references to the " civil war " or to any similar conception
are maintained in the final Report as they appear in the text
submitted to us, there would be no complete agreement between the
findings of the United Nations commissions and those of the International Labour Office as to the present situation in Greece. This
would undoubtedly make for even worse confusion in other countries
about events in Greece—the existing confusion having already
induced the Assembly and other organs of the United Nations to
take an intense interest in the question as being closely linked with
the general problem of world security.
In Greece it is thought that the International Labour Office is
on the threshold of great achievements, both in the study of social
conditions throughout the world, and in its positive efforts to improve
those conditions. If the Office began to deal with political questions,
not only would it add to its responsibilities, but duplication would
ensue in international affairs.
For the Greek people, the battle they are waging is not merely a
fight for existence ; it is, as it was eight years ago, an advance-guard
action in the battle of all free men. The Greek people know that the
battle they are proud to be waging now is identical with those they
fought in 1940 and 1941 to repel the attack of two powerful totalitarian States—except that fascism has now been replaced by the
totalitarianism of today.
The dramatic events of the past eight years, rather than the mere
passage of time, have, for some people, blurred the memory of that
struggle, but the Greek people have not forgotten. They remember
the immense effort and the sacrifices they made—sacrifices which still
continue today. They remember, too, what was said and written
then of the small but proud and immortal Greek nation. Statesmen
of international repute, the Press of all countries, men of science and
ordinary citizens of free countries paid tribute to the sacrifices made
by the little country of Greece and to the results which the spiritual
strength of her people enabled her to achieve. These tributes showed
the true sense of the national effort, which, as was realised on all
sides, was directed to ends of international, and not merely of
national, significance. So again today we Greeks, who have

APPENDICES

329

known bitterness and disillusionment both in the recent and in the
more distant past, believe the world has begun to understand that
Greece, her shores bathed by the limpid Aegean, eternal guardian of
her traditions at the crossroads of the continents, tortured as Prometheus the fire-bearer was tortured, is again making a supreme effort
in a struggle whose outcome will decide not only whether Greece shall
still be Greece, but also whether men shall still be free.
Neither the findings of the United Nations commissions, nor the
sentiments of the Greek people, warrant the use of the term " civil
war " to describe the noble and immense effort whose objectives lie
well beyond the geographical boundaries of the country, being the
first-phase objectives of a general action to overcome totalitarianism
and preserve democracy.
We trust that the International Labour Office and its shrewd
directorate will recognise these facts, admitted by all Greeks but a
handful who, forgetful of their noble history, have become the instruments of policies foreign to Greek and to humanitarian ideals.
From the information obtained by the United Nations, it is
clear that the bloody battle now being waged on the ancient soil of
Greece—that same Greece which, from time immemorial, has fought
for civilisation—is not a " civil war ". It is truly a frontier war in
which, once again, Greece offers up the flower of her youth and the
vitality of her race. It is a war of Greeks defending themselves
against the mercenaries of an expansionist totalitarianism openly
supported by Greece's northern neighbours.
Within her frontiers there are no Greeks of the left, right or centre
so long as the war lasts. There are only Greeks, enduring a perfidious
totalitarian aggression on their national territory, which is defended
by too few troops.
It would have been permissible to use the term " civil war " only
if the war were being waged exclusively between Greeks, and for no
other purpose than the conquest of power in Greece by one side or the
other.
Although this question does not, in our opinion, come within the
scope of either the International Labour Office 1 or the Ministry of
Labour, both of which have self-evident terms of reference to promote
SQcial progress on the national and international levels, we shall try
to set out briefly the various aspects of the present extremely
troubled situation, so as to eliminate misunderstandings which would
defeat our common purpose.

II
The Greeks are, by tradition, profoundly democratic.
Their long political history offers many examples of popular
institutions of a purely democratic character—for example, the
institution of the communes, the joint ownership of ships, etc.—
which were not imposed from above, but sprang from the genius
of the people themselves and developed on a sound basis until
the re-establishment of the Greek State in 1832. The newly formed
1
The reasons why the Mission thought it necessary to outline the
political situation in Greece are explained in the introduction to
Chapter II of the Report; see above, p. 18 (I.L.O. note).

22

330

LABOUR PROBLEMS ÏN GREECE

State immediately incorporated and gave sanction to these practices
both in the new Greek Constitution and in the general legislation.
The outstanding features of the Greek character are a belief
in the supremacy of moral values, an ability to face danger with
courage, a liberal attitude of mind and a taste for discussion.
The harshness of the soil, the diversity of climatic conditions,
the hard seafaring life with its sudden dangers out of reach of help,
the small returns from work both on land and sea, the monotonous
hours of waiting, conducive to meditation, under clear skies—all
these have, with the influence of the Hellenic tradition, had a share
in shaping the Greek character. It is they that have made the
Greek people sober, alert, observant and resourceful, t h a t have
inclined them to think about and discuss any and every subject,
to take daring decisions and shoulder responsibilities without
seeking the protection of the great. Greeks are capable of great
enthusiasm and consequently they take risks without much thought
of the possibility of failure.
Their ancient tradition and the conditions of the present time
make the Greek people more conscious than others of the new
significance for world affairs that attaches more and more to everyday relationships, whether individual or collective, national or
international, and to the lives of free men in general.
The Greek tradition contributes in a very special manner to
this awareness. The sense of the interdependence of men today is
particularly alive in the Greek people for other reasons as well, of
a still more practical nature. Placed as they are where three continents meet, they have always found it easy to keep in touch with
different continents and peoples.
The whole country is open to, and develops towards, the sea.
The proportion of emigrating Greeks is one in seven, and the
humblest peasant is linked in thought with some distant country
to which a relative or friend has emigrated. The man who devotes
himself to the production of tobacco or dried currants —• two
products which, before the war, represented more than half
of Greek exports—cannot, in his anxiety to dispose of his crop,
ignore the state of the world market. Before the war, the trade
balance of Greece depended very largely on remittances from
emigrants, on the earnings of merchant ships, and on tourists from
abroad.
The friendliness of the Greek people to foreigners—a generous
feature and the mark of a very ancient tradition—makes relations
with foreigners and foreign countries easy and at the same time
makes things pleasant for the foreigner himself.
These characteristics of the Greek people throw light on the
recent history of our country, on the courage and moral force
displayed, on the spirit of sacrifice, often unreasoning, and on the
sincere will to co-operate with peoples and organisations who are
inspired, by civilised principles. Yet it is because Greece is so
attached to the ideals of real democracy that the hatred her enemies
bear her persists and grows.
For years now Greece has been exposed to every artifice of
totalitarian propaganda and tactics. Every means, every device,
every system has been tried against her.
From the first days of the triple occupation, when her enemies
from the north invaded the country as allies of the Germans and
set themselves to destroy her population and dissipate her riches,

APPENDICES

331

Greece also became the target of an anti-Hellenic propaganda,
open or disguised and carried on under various pretexts.
This propaganda assumed worldwide proportions when, after
the end of hostilities, those who had collaborated with the Germans
hastened to become the instruments of another expansionist policy.
The recent experiences of Greece may be summarised as follows.
After the victorious Albanian campaign, when Hitler's armies
invaded the country, followed by their collaborators who had
already been defeated, they proceeded to plunder the national
resources systematically and took the most drastic measures to
break the morale of the Greek people and inflict such misery as
would dissuade that people from putting obstacles in the way of
their military plans.
In spite of this, the national resistance movement was organised,
and every Greek played his part, in his own way and according to
his opportunities.
It is a fact—and it is here that the present drama begins—that
the Communist Party sought to monopolise the national resistance
under the banner of the E.A.M., but it is not true to say that the
E.A.M. was formed by a " broad coalition representing many
political groups ". All the organisations which Communist propaganda has put forward as composing the E.A.M., and which
are cited in the International Labour Office Report, are completely
non-existent as political parties. They do not even exist as branches
of the Greek Communist Party. But the arguments used by the
Communist Party proved a great danger and a snare to the Greek
people, who, during the occupation, had witnessed with such relief
the organisation- of a resistance movement for the establishment
of liberty and democracy.
The Gravielides Agrarian Party, the Republican Party, the
Union of Popular Democracy and the Socialist Party, all mentioned
as founders of the E.A.M., have never, in spite of their impressive
titles, had any members, and the names were used merely to
camouflage the Communist organisation of the E.A.M., which,
from the beginning, carefully concealed its real leaders and plans.
It must be understood—and this is of capital importance—
that the Communist Party, under the title of E.A.M., did not play
an important part in the national resistance movement. It was
by chance only, and in order to cover up some of its real aims, thai
it took part in certain actions, particularly when those actions
served its demagogic aim of deceiving simple Greek patriots. Whenever any other organisation acquired some power as the result of
real patriotic action, the E.A.M. sought by every means either to
prevent its development or to suppress it altogether. Thus, it
fought in the Greek mountains against the National Democratic
Liberation League (E.D.E.S.), which really did resist the enemy,
and against the " National and Social Liberation " organisation,
whose military commander, Colonel Psarros, it killed and which
it later dissolved.
The defamatory manoeuvres of the E.A.M. against each and all
were aimed at concealing from the world at large the truly national
effort of many other resistance organisations which fought actively
against the invader and did their duty as patriots without concerning themselves with politics. These organisations were dissolved
immediately after the liberation of Greece.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The organisations recognised by cur Middle East allies are as
follows :
(Í) The National Democratic Liberation League (E.D.E.S.).
(2) Greek Rebel National Groups.
(3) Midas.
(4) Roumelia, Avion, Islands (R.A.N.).
(5) Apollo.
(6) National Action.
(7) Prometheus.
(8) National Committee.
(9) National Brigade.
(10) Panhellenic Young Combatants' Union.
(11) National and Social Liberation.
(12) Homer.
(13) Popular Liberation Union.
(14) Followers of the Cephaliniotes.
(15) Zanna-Countouriotis.
(16) Union of Free Greeks.
(17) National Liberation League.
(18) Cretan National Organisation.
Well-informed people knew what was happening when repeated
rebellions broke out in the Greek army in Egypt. Others understood the situation after the liberation, and the horrible events
of December 1944 sounded the alarm for the entire Greek people.
From that time, the E.A.M. consisted only of the Communist Party
and some few sympathisers. All members who were not instruments of the Greek Communist Party or whose activities did not
include criminal ones punishable by law, ceased to support an
organisation which had now become completely Communist.
The treaty of Varkiza was signed after the defeat of the Communist armies in December 1944, and it was hoped there would
be a return to normal, seeing that only a few of those who had
committed all kinds of crimes were punished, while others were
allowed to return to their families and occupations. But the Communists very soon began to violate the agreement. A great part
of the arms, which had been monopolised by the Communists
during the occupation, were not surrendered, and this gave rise
to the belief among the Greek people that the Communists had
neither renounced their plans nor ceased their armed collaboration
with Greece's northern neighbours.
It was thus that the dramatic situation which still exists today
—when the aid being given by the northern neighbours is manifest
to all—was arrived at. Cruelties such as are being perpetrated
today in Greece have never been witnessed in any other political
disturbance in the country. Not only the number of the crimes,
but their nature is evidence of their origin. Nothing in these
practices has any connection whatsoever with Greek problems or
political changes. No Greek, for instance, could have conceived
the horrible crime of kidnapping children. The Greek tradition
implies the pursuit of social progress and especially the protection
of the family in general and of mothers and children in particular.
This kidnapping of children clearly shows the absolute contempt
which materialist totalitarianism has for the notion of a free man,
and is a terrible indication of the level to which the adherents of
such a system may descend. Before the occupation, crime statistics

APPENDICES

333

in Greece included certain acts committed, for the most part, against
honour or property, but horrible crimes of the kind now being
committed were never perpetrated in that period.
The Communists have left no section of the national life
untouched. For them political life, social life, trade unionism and
education have all been fields for intense and cunning propaganda
and for the violent application of their ideas.
In the political field their whole aim was to seize power by
force. To this end they opened a campaign to blacken the name
of all other political parties, hindered political liberty, and adopted
every possible means of suppressing anyone who opposed them.
When the Germans were leaving the country, instead of fighting
the occupying forces, the Communists went straight to Athens with
the intention of seizing power.
In the field of education, they have sought particularly to train
young men and women in their tactics, sometimes by cunning
propaganda, sometimes by force.
In the trade unions, they have sought to impose themselves
by force, and have not hesitated to suppress pre-war leaders,
however senior or representative, and to slander the trade unionists
who survived. Trade unionism and politics being for them one
and the same thing, they deliberately slandered any workers who
opposed them. By such means they put obstacles in the way of
any constructive effort. They sabotaged the reconstruction plans
so as to prevent the improvement of workers' conditions by a progressive social policy such as all Governments attempted to pursue
in spite of enormous difficulties.
It is, in fact, impossible for a foreigner to understand just how
diabolic were the plans of the Greek Communist Party or how
much harm it did to the country. Progress and order being the
principal enemies of communism, they sought by all means to
obstruct progress and order. They refused to take part in the 1946
elections lest their real strength should be revealed : they would
not participate in any election where they were obliged to submit
to democratic methods in common with the rest of the population.
Nevertheless, the general election of 1946, which was held in the
presence of thousands of foreign observers, demonstrated the weakness of the Communists. They then concentrated on spreading
confusion, not only about recent events, but also about the past,
maintaining that there never had been any progress in Greece.
The truth is that from the time when the Greek State was
restored a collective, clear and profound democratic conscience has
been manifest in the Greek people. It was, in fact, this democratic
conscience which was responsible for the constitutions drawn up
after the liberation, guaranteeing the individual and collective
rights of all citizens.
In Greece, the protection of workers is no new conception : it
has a long history as the offspring of the progressive and humanitarian
culture of our ancient Greco-Christian civilisation ; people were
conscious of the need for it long before the days of labour legislation. There exists, by tradition, a spiritual bond between employers
and workers, particularly in the small workshops and establishments, and there is often an echo of this spiritual bond in Greek
folklore.
If it should be asked why we have given these explanations,
we would reply that we have done so in order that the present

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LA30UR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

situation in Greece may be better understood for the purposes of
the enquiry instituted by the International Labour Office. Thorough
comprehension of the situation will facilitate and strengthen good
relations between the Greek Government and the International
Labour Office, and this will in turn contribute to the improvement
of the social conditions of Greek workers, at present prejudiced by
the general situation.
Ill
In the introduction to the Report, apart from references to
certain geographical and industrial peculiarities of each province,
the difference between Attica and Macedonia has been emphasised.
The Report refers to this difference as something permanent,
inherent in the geographical and physical barriers, which even
modern means of communication could not overcome.
The truth is that the life of the people in these provinces is as
homogeneous as the geographical features are diverse, and it is
very important that this should be understood. The peoples of
the islands, of Epirus, of Thrace, of the Péloponnèse, of Attica and
of Macedonia form a perfect unity, with the same ways of thinking,
language, religion and customs, the same morals, the same folk
songs, the same ideas and emotions, the same ideals, the same
traits of character. These .facts are well known by the folklore
specialists, and they should form the basis of any commentary on
Greek history.
A proof of this deep unity, both in the widespread territories
and in the common Hellenic spirit of the people, is to be found in
the collective achievements of the Greeks in various periods of
history.
The Macedonians, for example, when they carried the wars
with the Medes into Asia, carried over into Mesopotamia and as
far as India and all the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, with
their armies, some of the spiritual and moral content of the Greek
tradition. The Christian religion was closely linked with the Greek
tradition, whose civilising influence was continued by the Byzantine
civilisation. During the Turkish domination the Greeks continued
their civilising influence, and extended it to other countries. After
the fall of Byzantium, many of the cultured Greeks fled towards
the west and took with them their common spiritual heritage.
The Greeks have always had a sense of continuity : it was so lively
at the time of the revolution of 1821 that it found expression in
one of the fundamental principles oí the law setting up the Constitution of the reorganised State. This same sense of continuity is
noticeable in many features of everyday social life, in the language,
morals, customs, beliefs and ideals which have survived and have
been passed down through the centuries from generation to generation, alike in Attica, Macedonia, Laconia, Epirus, Thessalonica,
the Archipelago and many other Greek provinces.
Greece has never been a stranger to the forces which at all times
have made for civilisation. In the fields of science, art, politics,
economics and sociology she has always made immense efforts,
and she has important achievements to her credit in which Greeks
from all provinces, from the Islands, the Péloponnèse and Attica,
from Epirus, Thrace and Macedonia, have played their part. History
teaches that Greece has at all times been closely associated with

APPENDICES

335

civilising influences and has never failed to play her part in general
international events of historic significance, or ceased to be
conscious of her duty as a member of international society and as
a supporter of any generous humanitarian effort. The democratic
tradition is securely anchored in the spirit of the Greek people, and
whenever it is in danger they do not limit themselves to uniting
with other free peoples, but, thinking and acting independently,
they display a spiritual force which enables them to repel the
attack. All Greeks to day detest the course which their northern
neighbours are pursuing and, while relying on their own efforts,
they also place their hopes in the international organisations and
in the free peoples of the world.
In another part of the Report, before stating that after the
Balkan wars and the first World War Greece was extended by the
annexation of Epirus, Macedonia, western Thrace and the Aegean
Islands, it is stated that Greece is " one of the younger members of
the family of nations ". 1
Greece, however, is not a young nation which, for lack of cultural
and political maturity, should be placed under the guardianship
of other great nations. She is, unfortunately, a small and poor
country which, nevertheless, inspired by sentiments of friendship
and respect towards others and by a sense of her own dignity,
has at all times made sacrifices for the ideals of human dignity
and liberty which cannot be translated into statistics, but which
she conceived, cultivated and preserved throughout the thousands
of years of her history. She has always shown signs of admirable
vitality, of a will to adapt herself to changes and of a capacity to
survive in difficult conditions both in the past and present.
These are facts we live with and observe every day and about
which each of us has formed an opinion and taken a stand.
As to the territorial aggrandisement of Greece, the reader would
be able to form a more accurate notion of this if he could consider
the facts in relation to the general cultural history and territorial
extension of Greek civilisation and to the national sentiments of
the peoples whom the aggrandisement placed within the Greek
State.
The victorious end to the Balkan wars and to the first World
War led to the enlargement of Greek territory by the annexation
of Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace and the Aegean Islands, but it must
be assumed that the decision was made after the Hellenic character
of the territories and populations in question had been ascertained.
It is well known, moreover, that there are still other territories
and other populations, equally Greek, which in most cases do not
live under a régime of political independence, but which, nevertheless, remain Greek in thought and are closely bound to their
mother country.
As to the statement in the Report that a forced exchange of
populations with Bulgaria took place which uprooted most of the
Slav-speaking peasants of Macedonia 1, it would be well to note
the following : (1) this question of a Slav-speaking minority should
not be considered without reference to the proportion of the
numbers concerned to the rest of the compact Greek population
in the northern provinces, and it should be borne in mind that the
1

This part of the Report has since been modified (I.L.O. note).

336

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

population usually reckoned as speaking a Slav language includes
the Jews of Salónica ; (2) the agreement signed at Neuilly concerning the exchange of the Greco-Bulgarian population provided that
any exchange should be optional and not, as the Report of the
Mission implies, compulsory ; it was precisely on account of this
option that those inhabitants who spoke a Slav language or were
of Bulgarian or Slav outlook and who wished to emigrate left and
established themselves in Bulgaria, thus breaking away from the
other Slav-speaking elements who remained in Greece because,
with the exception of a few who remained under the orders of the
Macedonian Committee, they felt themselves to be Greeks. Recently,
some fanatical elements of the Greek Communist Party and those
who were guilty of crimes of every kind in December 1946 have
sought refuge in neighbouring countries and have joined the emigrants. If, during the occupation and since the liberation, the
emergence of a Slav national consciousness has led in the northern
provinces to the events referred to by the Mission, the cause is to
be found in the intense propaganda which was carried on, during
the occupation, by Bulgaria and, since the liberation, by Bulgaria
and Yugoslavia, especially the latter. The guerilla attack perpetrated
by our northern neighbours was the outcome of that propaganda
•—a fact established beyond question last year by the United Nations
Commission, and on several occasions recently by the United Nations
Balkans Committee.
The N.O.F. organisation mentioned in the Mission's Report
was called S.N.O.F. (Slav popular liberation front) during the
occupation—it was the counterpart of the Communist E.A.M.
which functioned in Greece. After the liberation the organisation
adopted the title of N.O.F.
Furthermore, the above-mentioned Slav-speaking minority (until
the war a minority in language only) did not become conscious of
being a national minority under the dictatorship of Metaxas but,
we repeat, during the occupation and after the liberation, as a
result of the intense propaganda to which it was subjected by our
northern neighbours and of the terror imposed by them.
The Report attempts to give a general description of contemporary Greek life. But any description that is confined to
the information supplied directly or indirectly in the Report—to
the analysis of unsatisfactory regulations (particularly the
detailed examination of emergency regulations), and to the comment that the will of the Greek people has been sapped and her
capacity for reconstruction destroyed as a result of assistance given
by international organisations and by States with which Greece
collaborated in a common cause, all of which has led to Greece's
" desperate plight "—might mislead a reader who seeks to form
a positive opinion without probing further, and might give him
very gloomy ideas about the Greek problem. 1
From the data provided and the figures indicating the permanent
poverty of the country—figures and facts to which should now
be added the reckless sacrifices and terrible destruction of at least
the last ten years, and the present conditions and the exceptional
measures which they have necessitated—Greece would appear to
be either in process of dissolution or at least to be irremediably on
the downward grade.
1

This part of the Report has since been modified (I.L.O. note).

APPENDICES

337

This is a false impression. Greece stands firm.
The present attack against Greece was organised and reinforced
by our northern neighbours ; it has reached a point of particular
intensity ; it has become ruinous and seriously threatens national
security, reinforcements of armed bands arriving from the neighbouring northern States while our frontiers are uncovered. In spite
of this, the Greek people remain steadfast in their faith and in their
determination to continue the struggle, and they are optimistic
about their social and national future.
The war which is being waged against Greece and the feeling
that the present danger is serious have delayed the reparation of
damage caused by the second World War and by the long enemy
occupation (German, Italian and Bulgarian), but neither the will
of the people nor their capacity for reconstruction has been sapped.
Reconstruction, in spite of all the obstacles, is being carried out
rapidly in relation to the difficulties which have to be confronted.
There are examples of States which have fallen at the first
blow, whereas Greece, sacked and bleeding, small but determined,
returns again and again to the attack against those who seek to
destroy this last bastion of resistance and liberty in the Balkans.
If Greece should fall, it would not be she alone who would suffer
the consequences, but all countries, just as her victorious participation in the second World War, in the judgment of all who contributed
to t h a t victory, benefited the whole world. That is the reason for
the sacrifices Greece has made and for her bitterness whenever the
purpose of her gigantic effort is misunderstood. It is also the reason
why she persists in trying to convince all who seek the truth whenever they misunderstand or merely ignore the realities of the situation.
It is essential that everyone should realise the problem which
confronts Greece at the moment : will she accept, or will she reject,
the totalitarian system of her northern neighbours ? Such a problem cannot be qualified as purely " political ", nor can it create
a situation of " political insecurity " or become the cause of " civil
war ".
A new form of external war presents itself here, with peculiar
characteristics of its own, and when there is a state of open war
there is no " left " or " right " in Greece : there are only Greeks
—confronted by the issues of national existence and individual
liberty—and Communists who, as political slaves and instruments
for the realisation of projects purely political and expansionist,
have forgotten the existence of social problems.
Bearing in mind the common ends and struggles of the Greek
people, of which we have endeavoured to give a brief outline, it is
easy to see how false an impression may be created by the following assertion contained in the Report: "The leading parties (in
Greece) have traditionally been allied to one or another of the
major Powers." 1 The uninformed reader, linking this statement
with certain other assertions in the Report, might be led to the
conclusion that there is nothing exceptional in what is taking place
today in Greece and that it is merely another case of antagonism
between two great Powers.
What is really happening today has been outlined in the foregoing pages. Furthermore, the influence which has been exercised
1

This part of the Report has since been modified (I.L.O.

note).

338

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

in certain cases on some political parties in our country by one or
two great Powers is incidental only and is not a characteristic of
Greek political life alone. The political history of other countries,
both large and small, offers similar examples. Certainly, there is
no justification for the general statement which we have quoted
from the Report.
The Greeks have always fought for liberty, democracy and all
those moral values which give a meaning to life.
IV
The Mission has shown understanding of the economic situation
in Greece, which has often been the subject of study during the
last few years. There is in fact a close connection now between the
economic factor and the sustained effort which is necessary for
carrying on war.
There are, however, one or two comments we would like to
make.
As to the distribution of the national income, the data supplied
by U.N.R.R.A. can only be accepted with reservations on two
points which diminish their value :
(a) The estimate of the Greek national income has been arrived
at by the census method, whereas the question of distribution has
been dealt with indirectly in a way that does not permit of much
precision.
fb) It often happens in Greece that a person's income may be
derived from different branches of economic activity because the
economic organisation lends itself to a system of small ownership
and small enterprise. This is even more true of the income of a
whole family. It is, therefore, difficult, except in one or two large
urban districts, to define a family as purely agricultural or purely
artisan.
There is no doubt that the increases in salaries and wages which
have been applied in Greece today are very far from bringing these
salaries and wages up to their pre-war value. At the same time,
bearing in mind that in 1947 the national income was only 65 per
cent, of that for 1939, it must be admitted that the decrease in the
value of salaries and wages has been much less than the general
decrease in income. The lowest level of remuneration, even in the
period preceding the war, left only a very small margin beyond
subsistence level, and the workers therefore very strongly opposed
any attempt to reduce their share of the national income in the
same proportion as the share of other classes of the population
was reduced.
Similar reasons justify the narrowing of the differences in
remuneration in favour of the lower categories. The decrease in
the over-all resources makes a fairer distribution necessary.
Finally, statistical data referring to the post-war period must
be used cautiously. It has been impossible, on account of the long
duration of the state of war, the mobilisation of certain officials,
and other reasons, to centralise complete and exact information. Moreover, such information as is available must be treated

APPENDICES

339

with some reserve, and should rather be considered as indicating
trends.
After the liberation, when Mr. Porphyrogenis was Minister of
Labour in the Papandreou Government, he had Act No. 28 of 1944
promulgated. This Act provided for the establishment of rates of
remuneration by joint decision of the Finance and Labour Ministers.
Since October 1947, the system of collective agreements has been
re-established by which workers may freely negotiate their terms
of remuneration and conditions of work.
The present policy of the Government as to salaries and wages
was defined in a statement issued on 9 September 1948.
Greece is at present making a supreme effort to bring to a
successful conclusion the bitter struggle which has been forced
upon her and in which her independence is at stake. The mobilisation of all her strength and resources for this war must be her chief
concern. At the same time, she is unsparing in her efforts to promote
reconstruction and rehabilitation. This process must be speeded
up as much as possible, particularly in the case of the Greek people
who have suffered so much, but the overwhelming war effort of a
country that was always poor and was only recently freed from
occupation by an inhuman enemy absorbs most of the nation's
energy and, for the time being, takes precedence over all other
questions.
Trade Union Situation
The Mission fully understood the fundamental reasons for the
abnormal state of the trade union movement in Greece. The situation is typical of the general upheaval in the country. It has been
brought about by the Greek Communist Party acting as agent of a
foreign totalitarianism and exploiting the abnormal conditions
created during the German and Italian occupation. This activity
has developed into open war carried on by the leaders of the Greek
Communist Party in league with foreign elements—a war which
is being prosecuted in the most treacherous manner behind the
lines in the social and economic life of the country, so that the
Mission has reason to say in its Report : " attempts at reconstruction bear a certain resemblance to the web of Penelope, since one
part of the population is continually unravelling the work which
another part has patiently woven "•—and, it might be added,
woven with patience, blood and sweat ! It should, however, be
pointed out that it is not " a part " of the Greek population which
is involved : as has already been pointed out, very few Greeks
figure among these deliberate wreckers. 1
It should be noted at this point that the Greek Communist
Party has for a long time pursued political ends through the workers'
occupational organisations. This is contrary to the fundamental
principles (which have never been modified) and constitutional
provisions of the first rules of the Greek General Confederation of
Labour (G.G.C.L.).
In view of the upheaval caused by the war, the Mission very
properly states that : " the Government responsible for the affairs
of the country is naturally the sole judge of the measures which
1

This part of the Report has since been modified (I.L.O. note).

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

in the interests of public security it is compelled to take ". The
Greek Government also notes with pleasure the opinion of the
Mission that a return to normal and the re-establishment of constitutional guarantees will necessarily result in the abolition of all
discriminatory texts in relation to occupational organisations,
because, as is also admitted by the Mission, the Greek Constitution
and laws concerning occupational organisations are impregnated
with that same spirit of democracy which, in fact, inspires the
entire Greek people. If, in the present circumstances, certain
emergency measures of security have been adopted (not measures
of discrimination), these have been made necessary by considerations of public wellbeing.
The Mission has evidently fully understood that the suggestions
put forward for the improvement of the Greek trade union situation
cannot be usefully considered until normal conditions have been
re-established in the country. In the meantime, everything possible
has been done to ensure a return to normal, and we notice that
the most important steps taken recently with regard to the trade
union movement have not been mentioned in the Report. 1
The goodwill of the Government is evident in the removal, by
a Decree N.E. (cf. Government Gazette, No. 122, Part A, 7 May
1948), of the restriction on the right to strike imposed by a Decree
of 7 December 1947. The Government also did everything in its
power to assist the working classes during the 9th Pan-Hellenic
Congress of the C.G.C.L. and to ensure that their meetings were held
in complete liberty so that the true voice of the workers might
be heard.
In spite of the violent speeches made precisely on account of the
full liberty afforded to the orators, and owing in part to the intense
rivalry between the trade unionists and to the awkward way in
which members expressed their differences of opinion, there is no
doubt that this Congress led to the election, after many years,
of the first administrative committee of the Confederation which
was truly representative of the workers.
Except for the Communists, who broadcast their protests from
the clandestine radio station of the guerilla chief Markos and his
handful of friends and hangers-on, the workers as a whole recognised
the validity of the results of the Congress. The Communist protests
aimed at prolonging indefinitely the existing irregularities in trade
union matters—irregularities which play into the hands of the
Greek Communist Party both at home and abroad. Fortunately,
these protests could in no way affect the validity of the decisions
taken by the Congress, which carried on its deliberations in the
presence of observers of all the great workers' organisations and
of diplomatic envoys from the great democratic countries, with
long experience of trade union debates and capable of appreciating
the worth of such debates.
The Ministry of Labour, in accordance with long-standing
regulations, maintained close contact with the work of the Congress
through a committee composed of high officials and presided over
1
The Report describes the situation as the Mission found it at the
time of its visit to Greece in October-November 1947. The Report
was completed in February 1948 and does not cover developments
which have taken place since that time (I.L.O. note).

APPENDICES

341

by the general secretary of the Ministry. The report submittep
by this committee to the Minister of Labour is attached as an annex.
The publication of this document in the final edition of the I.L.O.
Mission's Report would contribute greatly to the clarification of
the situation as it is today. 1
It is true that emergency measures have been adopted at
various times, and these may be classified as follows : (a) emergency measures decreed before the open attack by a foreign army ;
(b) emergency measures decreed to deal with that attack. With
regard to the measures in the first category, it should first of all
be remembered that they were introduced during the lifetime of
irregular political régimes such as the dictatorship of General Pángalos
or that of General Metaxas.
The measures applied under the Metaxas dictatorship were
repealed en bloc by an Act, No. 3127, promulgated in London in
1942 by the Greek Government, which then had its headquarters
there. This Act was published in Greece and is still in force. Of
the Legislative Decrees introduced under the Pángalos dictatorship,
only Nos. 3524/1928 and 3528/1928, which were adopted by the
Chamber of that period on the proposal of the coalition Government of Mr. Zaïmis, have survived. The first of these gives the
Minister of Communications the right to dismiss employees of the
railways, tramways and electricity undertakings who belong to the
Communist Party or are engaged systematically in fomenting
unrest ; the second orders removal from the trade union register of any
employee of the railways, tramways or electricity and gas undertakings who absents himself from work without a justifiable motive.
The striking feature of these texts is t h a t the Communists are
placed on the same footing as systematic agitators. This is not so
by chance. It has been well said that the formal terms of laws and
codes tell the whole history of the human drama. The texts in question clearly embody the history of the Greek Communist Party's
activities in trade union matters—activities which induced the legislator to place its members in the same category as professional
agitators.
We shall not cite further examples to justify the point we wish
to make here. This would involve a long historical survey and we
shall therefore merely describe the line of action which, since 1936,
the leader of the Greek Communist Party has laid down for communist " trade unionists " and for trade union workers under the
influence of this party.
On 1 November 1931, the newspaper Rizospastis published
an appeal by the Executive Committee of the Communist International to the members of the Greek Communist Party urging
them to study the immediate demands to be made on behalf of
the working classes and to organise the fight for acceptance of
these demands by any means appropriate to the existing situation,
including even a political general strike. In this way, the appeal
added, the party will join hands with the masses, will organise
them, will acquire their confidence, will assert itself among them,
and, by means of this fight for immediate economic concessions,
will induce them in ever-increasing numbers to take part in the
open political struggle for the satisfaction of fundamental demands
and for p o w e r . . .
1

This report is reproduced in Appendix II (I.L.O. note).

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Mr. Zachariades also proclaimed : " The party must do everything to carry out its programme, which will give the workers a
new purpose and present in a clear form, intelligible to the masses,
the problem of power and of the struggle for power, and will enable
the party, by breaking the influence of an unpolitical trade
unionism, to apply a revolutionary and popular policy and to take
the place which belongs to it by right in the political life of the
country and to demand the exercise of power." l
The realisation of such a programme would bring complete
confusion in the economic life of a country—particularly in a poor
country and if the programme were applied to the public services,
such as railways, electricity and gas. It was precisely for this reason
t h a t the above-mentioned Decrees were maintained in force.
The foregoing shows clearly that Communism in Greece has
always sought, sometimes by persuasion, sometimes by violence,
to undermine by unlawful means the social structure of the nation
and to seize power at any cost. In consequence, the various Governments have found it necessary to adopt defensive measures, and
these measures appear in the texts of certain laws.
When the war which is being waged openly against our country
from abroad has been won, it will be possible to abolish these Decrees,
including Act No. 1075/1938, which is applicable only to State
officials and which has not been enforced since the fall of the Metaxas
dictatorship.
The second category of emergency measures includes the provisions made for the preservation of public order. These are defensive
measures against treacherous attacks from abroad, such, for instance,
as the assassination of the Minister of Justice, Mr. Ch. Ladas. These
defensive measures are not directed against trade unionists acting
as such so long as they do not commit illegal acts. There is ample
evidence of this, as in the case of Mr. Stratis, who expressed himself
freely and enjoyed complete liberty of action, as did also the representative of a group of Communists, at the Pan-Hellenic Workers'
Congress. On the other hand, if trade unionists are guilty of acts
which break the law, they are punished. The Communists maintain,
as they did in their contacts with the Mission, that these emergency
measures are merely a pretext for the suppression of the Communist
opposition in the trade unions. It should be remembered, however,
how the ex-Secretary-General of the G.G.C.L., Mr. D. Paparigas,
who gave full support to the bandits, succeeded in escaping from
the island on which he was confined and, arriving clandestinely
in Athens, devoted himself to illegal activities in aid of the armed
attack from abroad until he was recently arrested again.
All trade unionists who have been prosecuted have really given
the rebellion active support. The dossier of each one contains proof
of this, and in no case have proceedings been taken against them
on account of their trade union activities.
How could the Communists for whom the trade unions are
nothing but a pretext go unpunished for acts which are obviously
directed against the Greek nation as a whole ?
During Mr. Braine's stay in Greece, the Government gave much
consideration to this question. In its desire to facilitate the work
1
Cf. Mr. ZACHARIADES : Elements for a History of the Greek Communist Party, published by the Central Committee of the Greek Communist Party (Athens, 1945).

APPENDICES

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of the trade unions the Government granted an amnesty to certain
categories of prisoners charged with crimes against the State, in
some cases to people condemned on this count. The amnesty affected
a certain number of trade unionists, most of whom were hardened
offenders. For instance, the Secretary-General of the Tobacco Workers'
Federation, Grozos, was one of those who benefited from the amnesty
and was granted permission to return. Immediately after his
release he joined the Markos brigands. In Sofia, he attended the
congress of Bulgarian tobacco workers and, according to our information, he now serves the bandits who slander Greece. Grozos was
a trade unionist ; should he still be recognised as such ?
It must be emphasised that in general the emergency measures
in question, which do not in any case affect trade unionists but
only those who take part in the attack by foreign armies, are indispensable. Whenever the Government has been lenient, the results
have been the reverse of what was hoped. It was proved in court
when the assassins of the Minister, Mr. Ch. Ladas, were tried that
the authors of the crime and their accomplices came from the ranks
of those who had been imprisoned for a time and then released
under the amnesty granted by the Government.
Does not the fact that the Governments of the United States
and of Great Britain have found it necessary to dismiss from their
service all Communist employees—and this under normal conditions—justify the Greek Government's purge of its services
also ? The more so as steps have only been taken against officials
with very definite Communist affiliations, and that at a time when
the very life of the nation was at stake. No one would find justification for those who, being responsible for the very existence of their
country, compounded with a ruthless enemy during a struggle
such as that carried on against Greece.
But the emergency measures do not make up the whole of the
Greek trade union legislation. The whole world knows that they
are provisional measures only, directed against those, wherever
they may be, who are enemies of the community. These measures
will be rescinded as soon as the emergency which made them
necessary is past. The fundamental trade union legislation is,
according to the Report of the Mission, that of Chapter B of the
Civil Code and of Act No. 281/1914 on trade unions and of Act
No. 2151/1920 on occupational associations. This legislation is
strictly guaranteed by Article 11 of the Constitution.
The spirit in which this legislation is applied is shown by Decision No. 885/1946 of the Council of State, on which the Report
makes the following comment :
The decision of the Council of State was published on 29 May
1946 (No. 885/1946) and was arrived at as the result of long discussions, in the course of which the whole situation de facto and de jure
of the trade union movement was examined in great detail. The
decision is not only of great importance in itself, since it led to the
dismissal of the Executive elected by the Congress as will be seen
later, but it also has a very considerable bearing on the future of the
trade union movement in Greece.
We should like to state as this point, without the least intention
of paying mere compliments, that the legal ability of the Mission
is evidenced not only by their fully appreciating the sense of Greek
trade union legislation, but also by their having made a comparative
study of it. We have practically nothing to add to that part of the

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Report entitled " Legal Status of Occupational Organisations ".
In two cases only the Mission seems to have been in some doubt
about the meaning of the provisions in question. The two points are
the following :
Of Article 78 of the Civil Code, the Mission states : " It is not
clear from the text whether registration as an association and the
grant of legal personality is acquired automatically if the association fulfils all the conditions provided by the law ". 1 In this connection we would point out that, as the Mission justly observes,
the judicial authority has no discretion as to the recognition or
non-recognition of an occupational association applying to it,
because such a practice would be unconstitutional : it can only say
whether or not the regulations submitted fulfil the formal conditions
prescribed by law. The competence of the judicial authority goes
no farther than that. Once the court has approved the application
of a trade union for recognition, it is obliged to order entry in the
special register (Article 81 of Civil Cede).
It follows that entry in the register is an obligation created
by the court's decision itself, whereas legal recognition becomes
effective from the moment when an irrevocable decision recognising the association is taken, and this independently of the entry
of the association in the register, even when this entry has not been
made, or is incomplete or faulty.
The second point upon which the Mission expresses doubt concerns section 31 of Act 281/1914. The Mission states :
In the event provided for in this section, there is clearly no
question of more than the provisional suspension of an administrative
committee, and not of the dissolution of an organisation as such,
since such action would clearly be inconsistent with Article 11 of the
Constitution.
The fact that it is only a question of provisional suspension of
the administrative committee and not of the dissolution of the
organisation is clear from the above-mentioned section itself, which
prescribes the immediate convocation of the general meeting in
extraordinary session for the election of a new administrative
committee—-a meeting which obviously could not be called if
the organisation had been dissolved.
The Mission had previously stated that Article 11 of the Constitution furnished two fundamental guarantees :
Under the first of these guarantees, the regulation of freedom of
association by legislative means can never go so far as to subject
this right to preliminary authorisation by the Government. Under
the second guarantee, any organisation, even if it has been guilty of
an infringement of the law involving as penalty the dissolution of the
association concerned, is entitled to the guarantees offered by normal
judicial procedure.
It will be noted that these two fundamental guarantees were also
provided for in the Resolution on freedom of association adopted by
the International Labour Conference at its 30th Session (1947), and
will appear in the Convention on freedom of association on which
the 31st Session of the Conference (1948) will be called upon to take
a decision.
1

This part of the Report has since been modified (I.L.O. note).

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345

The Report adds : " Despite the civil war, these provisions of
the Constitution are at present in full force."
As to the rest of our trade union legislation, the Mission remarks
that the regulations regarding association are, in general, " in accordance with the rules which trade unions in other countries have freely
adopted ".
The following conclusions may, therefore, be drawn from the
foregoing : (a) that, apart from the matters dealt with by the
Mission under the title of " Conclusions and Recommendations ",
our trade union legislation may be considered as being in harmony, on
the one hand, with the common conception of the rights of association
in liberal and progressive countries and, on the other, with the general
principles formulated by the International Labour Office and the
International Labour Conference ; (b) that this legislation is being
applied even in the difficult circumstances at present existing in
the country.
If these conclusions are valid, they should, in the interests of
truth, be included in the appropriate section of the final Report of
the Mission.
In the second part of the chapter in question, the Mission traces
the history of the reconstruction of the Greek trade union movement. The dramatic phases through which the movement has
passed and the efforts to re-establish normality made by the United
States and United Kingdom Governments, as well as by the various
Greek Governments which followed the liberation, are reviewed.
The Mission has correctly summed up the problem of the trade
union movement in Greece as that of " restarting a free trade union
movement that should be united, really representative of the
working classes and, in consequence, competent to defend the
occupational interests of its members and to play its part in the
reconstruction of the war-devastated country ".
" At the liberation, therefore, " continues the Mission, " it
became at once necessary to reconstruct ab initio a free trade union
movement which could dispense with the wardenship of the public
authorities. "
But instead of proceeding in this manner, the first Minister of
Labour, Mr. Porphyrogenis, representative of the Greek Communist
Party in the Government set up after the liberation under the
presidency of Mr. Papandreou, and who today is a minister in the
pseudo-government of Markos in the mountains, created an Executive
Committee of the G.G.C.L. which was nothing more than an expression of the " workers' " section of E.A.M., the organisation which
had prepared and conducted the notorious subversive campaign
of December 1944, which plunged the country into untold misery.
All the other non-Communist trade union leaders were persecuted.
It should, however, be noted, since the Mission states that the
interference in the trade unions by the Left elements provoked
protests by the elements of the Right, that this interference
created indignation among trade unionists not only of the Right
but among all trade unionists of whatever tendency, with the
exception of the Communists. Nor was this the only reason for the
aversion of the masses to this Executive Committee. Another
reason was that the Committee had seized power in the unions
against the will of the workers and, during the later occupation
period, by frequent recourse to the assassination of trade union
leaders. This aversion was increased, moreover, by the fact that
23

346

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

workers were intimidated by these assassinations and by the threats
of the Communists into taking part in continual demonstrations
directed against the Allies, and this against their conscience and
their real sentiments of deep gratitude to the liberating Allies.
Besides this, the attempt to deify certain persons who were foreign
to the workers' movement and to the nation itself, the suppression
of the liberties of the workers, who, when ordered, were obliged to
attend ceremonies the aims of which they did not understand, to
participate in parades carrying banners with political slogans,
and to abandon their work to take part in such demonstrations,
created in them a sense of being the slaves of the Executive Committee
of the G.G.C.L. The result was a profound aversion to this committee
which humiliated workers and wounded their human dignity.
Obviously, these sentiments were concealed by the workers
during the period when they lived under the threats of the Executive
Committee appointed by Porphyrogenis and of the armed bands of
the E.A.M. (including the " workers' " section of the E.A.M.), as,
for example, the O.P.L.A. and the reserve E.L.A.S. (National
People's Liberation Army).
But when, after the open collaboration of the G.G.C.L. Executive
with E.A.M. during the seditious movement of December 1944,
the danger was removed, this repugnance of the people began to
show itself and, on account of the crimes committed during the
Communist revolution (it has been proved that 140 trade union
leaders were killed because they did not belong to the Communist
Party), grew daily more intense until it became a feeling of hatred
for anyone who had belonged to the E.A.M. and, thus, for the
then members of the Executive Committee of the G.G.C.L.
This committee showed no desire whatever to " play its part
in the reconstruction of the war-devastated country " unless
there were a complete reversal of the social system. And it was
towards this that the directives for action issued by the Communist
Party chief were aimed. Production by the workers during this
period had fallen to a dangerously low level ; on the other hand,
the slogan during the frequent demonstrations organised by the
Executive Committee of the G.G.C.L. was " Out with the English "
—which certainly did not express the sentiments of the trade
unionists.
It should be noted here that, although the Metaxas dictatorship made for irregularity in the development of the trade union
movement, it did not take upon itself to intervene in a way in which
Porphyrogenis himself did not shrink from. If it is true that the
dictatorial Government of Metaxas substituted for the Executive
Committee of the G.G.C.L. another committee more to its taste,
it is equally true that such a measure was in conformity with the
existing law and was not taken until irregularities in the financial
management had been proved which gave the Minister the right
to declare such a committee divested of its functions.
It has been made abundantly clear that the policy followed by
the Greek Communist Party for a long time, but particularly since
the liberation, in exploiting the abnormal situation of the country,
is the main cause of the irregularity in the Greek trade union movement.
We consider that, since the investigation of this irregularity
has brought out the real causes, these conclusions should be mentioned
in the final Report of the Mission.

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347

The Report also refers to Decision No. 28,560 of 30 July
1946 by which the Ministry of Labour, in accordance with the
Council of State Decision No. 885/1946, appointed a Provisional
Executive Committee of the G.G.C.L. The Mission states in this
connection : " It may be noted that the new Provisional Executive
was composed of 21 members, of whom 5 belonged to the extreme
Left tendency".
The point would have been clearer if the Report had noted that,
during the period in which this ministerial decision was taken, there
was no reliable means of estimating the influence of each group
in the Greek trade union movement.
The results of the legislative elections of 1946, which showed
very clearly the extent of the influence of each political party,
made clear also what was the actual strength of the Greek Communist
Party as well as that of the small groups collaborating with
E.R.G.A.S. (Anti-Fascist Workers' Organisation).
Nevertheless,
it was judged inopportune to insist on this in the composition of
the G.G.C.L., not because the results of the elections did not indicate
the true situation, but because representation of the Communists
in the Provisional Executive, if based on the election results, would
have been very slight indeed. This might have caused the Communists to abstain from participation in the Executive, and their
abstention would not have suited the Government, whose aim
at that time was to re-establish order in trade union affairs.
The Government was, on the other hand, also unable to ignore
the justifiable claims of the " reformists " (E.R.E.P.), because
they, too, might have refused to participate in the Provisional
Executive.
In an effort to reconcile divergent policies, the Government was
obliged to take into consideration both the results of the general
elections of 1946 and the conditions of an agreement entered into
on 29 April 1945 between trade unionist groups with conflicting
views, including the E.R.G.A.S. Ry the terms of this agreement
the E.R.G.A.S. recognised that the " reformist " element in the
organisations represented the majority of the workers. It was for
this reason that the Government, in its desire to reconcile opposing
elements, appointed five representatives from the extreme Left
to the Executive Committee.
This attitude of the Government proved to be realistic, as was
shown by the arduous discussions which took place after the arrival
in Greece of Mr. Citrine, Mr. Tewson and Mr. Braine and by the
no less arduous negotiations between Mr. Braine, Mr. Berger and
Mr. Simpson. During the course of these extremely difficult deliberations the Reformists rejected the proposals to increase the
representation of the Left wing in the Executive Committee, and
the Left wing finally agreed to a representation of seven out of 21
members. This compromise proved in any case unworkable because
the Communists insisted that the Greek trade union movement
should be placed under the control of the W.F.T.U., an organisation
which, as has been said, was very obviously influenced by international communism.
This organisation has had on Greek trade union affairs an
influence inspired by a spirit of partiality and its activities have
done great harm to all classes in the country, including the working
classes, because, deliberately or otherwise, both its influence and
its activities have been directed to purposes which conflict with

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

the ideas and outlook not only of the Greek working classes, but
of the whole Greek nation.
If the meaning of the phrase cited above is not made clearer,
the impression created may well distort that truth which it is the
aim and duty of the Mission to establish.
It should be mentioned here also that two of the seven delegates
appointed as members of the G.G.C.L. Executive in accordance with
the decision (No. 9112/4) of 9 June 1947 of the president of the court
of first instance, namely, Mr. Matheopoulos and Mr. Clonaris,
accepted nomination and collaborated with that body until the
Ninth Pan-Hellenic Workers' Congress had completed its work, which
led to the appointment of the legal executive with the task of
ensuring administration through the Provisional Committee set up
in conformity with the above-mentioned decision.
Let us now consider some of the points in Chapter VI of the
Report, under the title of " Conclusions and Recommendations ".
The first recommendation made by the Mission refers to the
question of trade union discrimination.
The Mission here has in mind, as the text of the Report shows,
certain "emergency measures"—or " s e c u r i t y " measures as we
have preferred to call them—which were adopted in a truly exceptional period in the history of the country. For various reasons,
and especially to cope with the present activities of bandits against
the State, some of those measures were maintained after the crisis
which made them necessary.
As to the emergency measures themselves, we have already
dealt in some detail with their nature and with the circumstances
which made them necessary. It is unnecessary to recapitulate
these points, seeing that the Mission itself has commented that
they will " lapse automatically as soon as normal conditions return ",
and has added : " In all probability, both as regards certain measures
taken in the past and as regards recent measures, the Government
will wish to return, as soon as circumstances permit, to the principle
of non-discrimination in trade union matters."
This expectation of the Mission will be fulfilled, the more so as
one of the fundamental principles of Greek public law—incorporated
in all Constitutions that have been established since the foundation
of the State—is that of the equality of all citizens before the law.
As will have been seen from the foregoing, this principle has always
been observed in legislation concerning the right of association.
It has also been applied in the security measures taken to combat
the attack on the State, and if, on account of these measures, sanctions have been enforced against persons or organisations avowedly
Communist, that is because the Greek Communist Party, as an
organised political party, stirred up against the State a revolt
which was supported by every means at its disposal. By these
acts the Greek Communists placed themselves outside the law.
Furthermore, according to the fundamental principles of penal
law, the party and its members, by acting in a way likely to disturb
public order and create agitation, became punishable by law.
To put the matter more clearly still : neither Communism as
a doctrine or as a political party, nor Communists as members of
that party, are proceeded against ; the Greek Communist Party is
proceeded against when it becomes an organisation for illicit action :
then it is liable to criminal proceedings and its members become
accessories charged with the execution of criminal acts. This is

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349

no violation of the principle of equality before the law, but, on
the contrary, a confirmation of that principle, which must be upheld
by any Government based on the will of the people. What has just
been said clearly demonstrates that Greek trade union legislation,
which observes the principle of equality before the law, does not
discriminate in trade union matters. This principle has also been
respected in the emergency measures adopted to meet the attack
from abroad. Moreover, these measures, as the Mission has pointed
out, are provisional only, and as soon as circumstances permit,
they will be repealed, together with measures of an earlier date
which it has been necessary to maintain for the time being. For
all these reasons, this first recommendation ought not to appear
in the final Report.
The second recommendation of the Mission concerns the political
independence of the trade union movement.
The Government is in complete agreement with the Mission on
this point ; it has striven and will continue to strive for the maintenance of this principle.
Unfortunately, the Greek Communist Party has for a long
time proclaimed formally through its chief, Mr. Zachariades, that
the principle of " unpolitical trade unionism " must be abandoned,
and that the party must undertake the education of the workers
in their organisations so that by a political strike they may seize
power. This end has been pursued with a fanatical faith and by
criminal means, as we have already pointed out.
It was natural that such a policy should provoke a reaction among
the trade unionists of another persuasion, who did not wish their
organisations to pass into the hands of the Greek Communist Party,
and the outcome was a tendency to political activity in the workers'
associations, which was very harmful to trade union unity.
The trade unionists are now aware of the disintegrating influence
of the Greek Communist Party but, in spite of the differences of opinion which were so obvious during the Ninth Pan-Hellenic Workers'
Congress, they continue to collaborate in the administration of the
G.G.C.L. This is considered by the Government, on the one hand,
as a sign of the beginning of a return to normal in trade union
matters, as a result of the abandonment by the trade unionists of
political activities, and, on the other, as à measure of the success
of the Congress. The Government is happy to remember that it
did everything within its power to assist the working classes in
holding the Congress and dealing with the agenda in complete
liberty.
The third recommendation of the Mission refers to the compulsory trade union contribution. Here also the Government is in full
agreement with the Mission. For this reason it granted all members
of workers' organisations, at the time of the trade union elections
and of the Ninth Pan-Hellenic Congress, the right to vote and to be
elected provided they were in order as to contributions.
Because the compulsory contributions are to be considered as
a condition for the granting of the right in question and because, as
the Mission admits, " it would be difficult for the trade union movement to survive if it were to be abruptly deprived of the resources
emanating from the trade union ' levy ' ", we consider that the
remarks of the Mission on this point should be included in another
part of the final Report, and not be included in the part entitled
" Conclusions and Recommendations ", unless this part were divided

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

into (a) " Conclusions " and (b) " Recommendations ", in which
case, the remarks in question should obviously be placed under
" Conclusions ".
A rectification should also be made with regard to a mistaken
opinion formed by the Mission, which considers, for various reasons,
that the trade unions may " show in their list of members or in
their electoral registers the names of workers who have no real link
with the trade union in question " -1 This assertion is not in accordance with the facts, because the Civil Code now in force provides
explicitly that the rules submitted for the approval of the tribunal
shall not be valid unless they specify the conditions of the admission,
resignation or expulsion of members.
Moreover, a standard clause specifies that a worker who applies
or is proposed for admission shall not be admitted unless he is in
fact engaged in the trade for whose protection and promotion the
union was formed.
Any infringement of this rule is submitted first of all to the
supervisory authority and then to the general meeting of the
trade union, and finally to the judicial authority. Here, obviously,
the worth of the statutory provision must be estimated with reference to the principle which it enunciates and seeks to protect, and
not to the deliberate cffences committed against it. It is true that
in the past the G.G.C.L., being under Communist control, has committed the offence of illegally registering members, but it was
precisely this practice that was strongly resented by all non-Communist workers and that led to the invalidation of elections held
under Communist control in the trade unions and their federations.
This comment by the Mission should, therefore, not be included
in the final Report.
The reference to the contribution as a " tax " or " levy " should
also be omitted, in view of the fact that this contribution is merely
substituted for that fixed by the union rules. It would be more
exact to refer to it as a " compulsory contribution ".
The fourth recommendation of the Mission refers to the reform
of trade union legislation, and this is accepted in principle.
The Government admits in particular, and for the same reasons
as those mentioned by the Mission, the need for codifying the trade
union legislation so that there shall be one easily interpreted and
unified text of the regulations, and so that certain doubtful points
such as those mentioned by the Mission may be clarified and, in
general, so that all useless and superfluous provisions may be eliminated.
The Government has delayed the preparation and presentation
to Parliament of such a Bill (which would be voted upon in accordance with the special procedure relative to "codes") because
(a) until recently, the most important of the trade union organisations of the country, the G.G.C.L., whose co-operation is considered as indispensable for the elaboration of the Code in question,
has been without a regular administration which would have enabled
it to participate authoritatively in the commission which will be
set up for the preparation of the Code ; (b) the Government has been
awaiting the Report of the Mission so that it may take into consideration the recommendations of the International Labour Office
1

This part of the Report has since been modified (I.L.O. note).

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in the preparation of such a Code ; (c) the situation created in
the country by brigandage was such that the Government was
obliged to postpone any long-term legislation the preparation of which
must, in the national interest, be carried out in an atmosphere
conducive to calm judgment and sheltered from violent political
reactions.
Some of these conditions have now been fulfilled. Others, if
recent developments may be taken as a sign, are about to be fulfilled, in which case the Government will be in a position to carry
out all the proposals with regard to trade union legislation contained
in the declarations made by Mr. Tsaldaris in October 1946 as head of
the Government. For the satisfactory accomplishment of this task,
the Government relies upon the co-operation of the International
Labour Office, whose valuable experience and vast knowledge of trade
union affairs, from both the legal and the technical points of view,
can be of great assistance in the codification and revision of Greek
trade union legislation.
Some of the observations made concerning the constitution of
the occupational organisations and their autonomy refer to the
"emergency measures"—as they are described. We have already
pointed out that these are, in fact, "security measures" of a temporary character, adopted in the interests of public welfare, and it
does not seem necessary to return to this question.
We will therefore limit ourselves to a brief explanation of the
meaning of section 30 of the Act of 1914 concerning associations.
As has been previously stated, the object of the control by the
supervisory authority is that the trade unions shall function legally.
The presence of members of this controlling body in the meetings is
intended to ensure their legality and to prevent the unions, for lack
of knowledge of the legislation governing them, from adopting
decisions likely to be nullified. On the other hand, the representatives of the supervisory body have no powers, and the general
meeting is entirely free to take decisions against their recommendations and indications with regard to the legal issues involved.
This provision is an additional protection so that, as the Mission
itself states, trade unions may be assisted when they lack the experience necessary for drawing up rules and regulations.
If the frequency with which the trade unions request the presence in their general meetings of representatives of the supervisory authority may be taken as symptomatic, it may be assumed
that this provision assists considerably and effectively in the regular functioning of the meetings and in the conduct of their
deliberations.
The Government admits the justification for the comment in
Chapter VI, under the heading " Suspension or Dissolution of Occupational Organisations ", on section 33 of Act No. 281/1914.
The Government does not, however, agree with the comments of the Mission in the section entitled "Dissolution and Reconstitution of Occupational Organisations".
It is not felt that there is anything obscure in Article 105 of
the Civil Code, which stipulates that an association may be dissolved
upon sentence passed by the judicial authority whenever it is found
impossible to set up an administrative committee on account of a
reduction in the number of members of the organisation or "for any
other reason ". This last phrase provides for any cause which renders
impossible the constitution of an administrative committee in so far

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as this impossibility has been certified by judicial decision, seeing
that a union cannot function without an administrative committee.
Without such a committee, the trade union would enter upon
a long period of inaction, thus abandoning its professed objectives,
and its dissolution would be effected in accordance with paragraph 2,
line 2, of the same section. But why should such a lapse of time be
allowed ? Some doubt as to the value and reliability of the judicial
decision certifying the impossibility of forming a committee "for
any other reason" must be supposed in order to justify such an
attitude. It should however be borne in mind that in Greece the
judicial authorities, whose independence is guaranteed by the Constitution and by an austere tradition, are considered as a moral
factor inspiring confidence and respect.
For the same reasons, we cannot admit the objections raised by
the Mission in connection with Article 69 of the Civil Code, seeing
that it is the court which decides concerning any divergence between the interests of the trade union and those of the persons who
administer it.
Furthermore, we. consider that it is with good reason that Article
69 charges the courts and not the Executive Power with the nomination of provisional administrators, as this is the only way to
prevent any tendency on the part of the trade unions to become
political—an accusation frequently made by the enemies of trade
unionism, as we have already pointed out.
It is obviously unnecessary to consider the legal reasons for
judicial decisions concerning the appointment of trade union
administrative authorities ; the facts of the case only need be considered : the influence of the persons assuming the responsibility
of administration, their authority and capacity, and other points
concerning which only the objectivity of a judge can offer a just
and reliable estimate. So much for the objections as to the facts.
As to the objections of the Mission on questions of principle, we
consider t h a t they are refuted by the comments on the decision
of the Council of State No. 885/1946 which have been inserted in
the Report on this matter and with which in general we agree.
Finally, as to the observations of the Mission concerning the
recognition of occupational organisations, we wish to state that the
court to which the request for recognition of an organisation is
submitted is obliged to grant recognition on two conditions : (1) if
the organisation comprises the statutory number of members
(Articles 7-8 of the Civil Code) ; and (2) if rules of the organisation
containing the information required by law have been submitted
for approval. The court then certifies the existence of this information and nothing more. In the contrary case, the judicial decision
may be brought before the court of appeal and the Areopagus.
On this point there is no contrary opinion in Greece, either in practice or in theory, and for this reason we see no reason for the introduction of a law to clarify a provision concerning which there has
never been any doubt.
As to the suggestion that occupational organisations should
acquire legal personality by the mere fact of their members being
associated, without any other formality, this is a very different
matter, and it would be very dangerous to accept such a proposal,
which might do irremediable harm to Greek trade unionism.
Such a facility would encourage the more active elements to
create many similar organisations in the same town, in which case

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the unity of the workers would be broken up in such a way that the
advantages which the Mission expects from such a modification
would be entirely nullified.
Furthermore, it would be dangerous to effect such fundamental
changes, except where absolutely necessary, in the legislation which
has existed in the country for a very long time and to which the
public is well accustomed. However progressive the proposed modification may be, there would be grave danger of failure even before
any good effects could be felt.
Social Insurance
The Mission has very judiciously set the problem of social
security against the background of the general economic situation of
the country. But some clarification is needed with regard to the
figure of 156 per cent, given in the Report as the relation between
minimum pensions in 1947 and the national income per head in 1938.
This figure of 156 per cent, is arrived at by the conversion into
dollars of the minimum pensions for 1947 and the national income per
head for 1938, which are given in drachmae. But, while the conversion of the pensions is based on the 1947 rate of exchange, the
income is converted on the basis of the 1937 rate.
These calculations can, in fact, have only a very relative value
in a country like Greece, which has been for a long time engaged
in a supreme effort to conclude victoriously a ruthless war imposed
on her. There is necessarily a wide margin of error in such calculations, on account of the precarious monetary system and the more
or less artificial exchange rates (reflecting, also, all kinds of fortuitous
circumstances) of the drachma with other currencies. In fact, the
same calculations would give today a figure of 118.8 per cent.—the
minimum pension being 125,000 drachmae per month and the exchange of drachmae into dollars on the open market about 14,000 (the
price on the open market is taken as basis for calculations in the
Report). On the other hand, no allowance has been made for the reduction of the buying power of the dollar since 1938. Actually, the wholesale price index—which is the determining factor in the fixing of the
rate of exchange—has risen in the United States since that date from
91 to 187 (cf. UNITED NATIONS : Monthly Bulletin of Statistics,
April, Vol. II, No. 4, p. 170), which means that the buying power
of the dollar today represents only 48.6 per cent, of that of the
1938 dollar, and this reduces the percentage mentioned above to
57.8. But even if the cost-of-living index is taken as a basis for calculation, this has risen since 1938 from 98 to 163 (cf. ibid., p. 161),
the percentage arrived at is thus only 71.4.
In any case, it must be admitted that the figures given above
are not excessive, bearing in mind the low level of national income
per head. What is more significant is that only the minimum pension
has risen to such an extent in relation to the pre-war figures ; the
highest categories have only shown a very slight rise based on a
much lower coefficient. It would be more useful to make a comparison based not upon the minimum pensions as in the Report, but
upon the average pension in the various countries under review
We are, in principle, in agreement with the opinion of the Mission
that it would be well to organise a medical service for the agricultural population without reference to the social insurance system.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The organisation of a special system of social security for the
agricultural population has already been studied.
This would
include free medical attention, medicai supplies and hospitalisation
arranged by local organisations on a co-operative basis—a system
with which country people are well acquainted. The medical attention and medical supplies would be furnished gratis by a doctor
paid by the month. The doctor's fees and dispensary costs would
be met by a central fund, but the beneficiaries would be required
to make a small contribution—of a merely symbolic amount—in
accordance with their means as known to the local population.
The doctor in charge would also be responsible for preventive
sanitary measures in his area.
It is intended that this organisation should be completely decentralised except for provincial unions, which would be created for the
purpose of providing hospitalisation.
At the present time, only those agricultural workers who live
close to the most important urban centres are insured. Owing to
the subdivision of agricultural landed property, the other workers
are for the most part smallholders who augment their income' by
working occasionally for others.
The Ministry is fully conscious of the need for co-ordination of
the various insurance Kgulations in the interests of social justice and
so that a more efficient administration may be established. The Social
Insurance Council, which prepares the draft rules for social insurance
funds, has recently made special efforts in this direction.
The initial Act on this subject, No. 2868/1922, introduced the
principle of social insurance based on the occupation or the undertaking, with a. contribution fixed by the employees at the time
of the constitution of each fund, within the limits (3 to 6 per cent.)
laid down by law, whereas for the I.K.A. the principle adopted was
that of a single fund with a fixed contribution. The authors of the
above law hoped, by allowing workers and employers to participate
in the control of their own funds, to stimulate greater interest on the
their part. Efforts were also made to discourage class distinctions
and to avoid centralisation which—human nature being what it
is, and institutions in general reflecting the qualities and defects of the
men who create them—would have led to abuses on account of the
remoteness between the administrative authorities and the insured
persons and employers in the respective funds.
When, during the course of the preparatory work for the establishment of the I.K.A., an effort was made to amalgamate, by one radical
measure, all the pension insurance funds for separate occupations
and undertakings, two objections were put forward and eventually
prevailed : (a) the benefits paid by Í.K.A., which received no State
aid, had necessarily been fixed at a low level, so t h a t the unification
would have had to be effected at the expense of the members of the
occupational funds, whose numbers were small relatively to the
membership of I.K.A. and who in most cases had been able to gain
certain social benefits thanks to the action of their trade unions ; (b) an
opinion was requested from a German expert, who in a report on the
big centralised insurance institutions independent of the State, wrote
as follows :
There is a danger that the machinery may become an end in
itself and that it may aim only at its own prosperity. It is also
possible that grave errors in organisation may be committed and
that all reform may be mistrusted, because it is always the experts

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355

only who know anything, and it, is precisely their interests which
are principally at stake. There is a risk of creating an abyss between
the administration and the administered.
It has been pointed out, moreover, that neither knowledge nor
experience of administration has yet made it possible to arrive at a
definite decision whether centralisation or decentralisation is to
be preferred. The success of each system appears to depend on the
people concerned, the general circumstances, and the conditions of
organisation and operation of each particular institution.
However this may be, and especially after the disastrous effects
which the war and occupation have had on most of the social insurance funds, it is generally recognised that reforms and readjustments in the system are necessary. In order, however, that any
reorganisation may produce good results, it is essential—as the
Report of the Mission admits—that such reorganisation should be
carried out gradually, seeing that the occupational funds and those
of the undertakings meet the needs and claims of the workers and,
having functioned for a long time, have become adapted to the
requirements of their members. This should be taken into account.
The comments of the Mission as to the exceptional burden
which the war and the occupation have imposed upon social insurance
institutions are wellfounded. This burden is, however, temporary
only and will be removed as soon as a relative stability permits longterm adjustments. A close study will then be made of the insurance
problem with a view to revision of the rules of social insurance funds
and of the financial provisions. The funds operate, in the present
economic conditions, according to a system which, without being
entirely founded upon the principle of assessment, yet lacks a longterm basis, and it is certainly desirable that this state of things should
end as soon as possible.
Efforts have been made, however (as will be seen from the
joint Decree of the Ministers of Finance and Labour, No. 50 855/1947),
to regulate insurance benefits, if necessary by stages, in accordance
with the technical knowledge available.
The obvious starting point in any effort at co-ordination and
uniformity must be the raising of the level of protection of the vast
majority of insured people who receive least benefit from the present
system. On the other hand, any attempt to reduce the rights acquired
by certain groups of employees—a very limited number—would
create great difficulties, because the benefits accruing to them are,
as a general rule, very far below subsistence level. The Ministry
considers that any reorganisation of social insurance must first of
all ensure the financial equilibrium and better functioning of the
biggest of the social insurance institutions : the I.K.A. Once these
two objectives have been achieved in a manner which will increase
the confidence of insured people in this institution, it will be very
much easier to combat the separatist tendencies of those affiliated
to the occupational funds and to the funds of individual undertakings,
and to bring about uniformity and gradually reorganise social insurance in general.
A definite regulation of the financial position of the I.K.A. and
of the other funds cannot, however, take place until the general
economic situation has become stabilised. This stabilisation is a
prerequisite for the granting by the State of any subsidy for social
insurance.
The phenomenon whereby in some cases the same person is

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

insured with several funds is due principally to the fact that some
of the funds insure all employees in one occupation while others,
also among the main insurance funds, insure all the workers in
one undertaking, whatever their occupation. For this reason it
will be found that in some cases the same person is affiliated to two
different funds : the main fund for his :rade and the main fund for
the undertaking where he works. These cases have been submitted
to the competent collective bodies (boards, etc.) and have been
dealt with on the principle that no one person may be insured with
more than one main fund. Methods for the general application of this
principle are being worked out.
A fundamental rule at present seeks to secure the insurance of
employees of the various undertakings with subsidiary pension
funds which—as there were no subsidiary sickness insurance f u n d s have been created chiefly by pressure from the trade union organisations of the interested employees on account of the low level of
benefits from the main insurance ; this rule provides that affiliation
to a subsidiary pension fund shall be compulsory. Affiliation to
a second subsidiary fund is optional for the employee and involves
payment by him of the employer's contribution. The pension
obtained from these various sources together is rarely sufficient to
ensure an adequate standard of living.
The rule with regard to " contracting in " for the period of service
completed before affiliation to an insurance fund should not be
suppressed, even though it may appear to cause certain irregularities in treatment, because at the time when the law on the subject
was promulgated steps were taken to meet the financial obligations
which would result for the fund. This provision is of unquestionable social value because it permits the granting of benefits to the
aging generation who had no opportunity of belonging to a social
insurance fund at a suitable date. It is obvious, however, that there
must be strict rules governing this point, and the Social Insurance
Council and the Ministry are at present engaged in drawing up these
rules.
It goes without saying that the first step towards rational reorganisation of the method of calculating benefits must be a more general
distribution of contributions. To this end, the law concerning contributions recently promulgated places on the Ministry of Finance
and the Council of Ministers—each in its own field—the responsibility of supervising the assessment and application of the social
insurance contributions. The Council of Ministers is authorised to
proceed to some redistribution of contributions. This is the first
step towards the realisation of a greater measure of social justice,
but besides this question there is the equally important problem
of the form the social benefits should take and of how they should
be distributed. The solution to this problem depends on the proposed
general reform of the Greek fiscal system.
It is desirable, in any case, that the social insurance funds should
function according to a system by which the State will grant financial aid proportionate to the responsibilities shouldered by each
insurance branch. This, however, must in turn depend upon budgetary resources.
The need for adequate accommodation for health service installations and, above all, for dispensaries, has been felt for a very long
time. In this connection, the I.K.A. had worked out a vast programme of construction before the war, but the work had to be

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357

postponed on the outbreak of hostilities ; since then and during
the years following the liberation the disorganisation of the finances
of the I.K.A. has made it impossible to proceed with the plans.
Steps are at present under consideration by the Ministry with a
view to meeting this need.
The financial decentralisation of sickness insurance is already
established by law.
An anti-tuberculosis social insurance institution is being set up.
A Royal Decree has fixed contributions from insured persons at
1 per cent, of wages, with an equal contribution from employers. It
is estimated that in about twenty months this body will have at its
disposal 300 beds in its own sanatoria. The setting up of this body
constitutes the first step towards the already proposed foundation
of an institution to organise an anti-tuberculosis campaign. The
new body will take as its motto : " Prevention is better than cure,
and care is better than having to pay cash benefits."
The problem of tuberculosis obviously goes beyond the scope
of social insurance. But until the State is able to undertake a systematic campaign on a wide scale against this scourge, there is no
reason why a special anti-tuberculosis social insurance institution
should not undertake the work within the narrower limits of social
insurance, thus breaking the ground for a larger effort. Such a
measure would produce two results : fa) alleviation of the crushing
burden which weighs upon the insurance funds on account of tuberculosis liabilities ; (b) creation with the least possible delay of the
necessary machinery to deal with this disease (sanatoria, etc.).
The Mission also reports on the question of the administration
of social insurance and expresses the opinion that this administration could be entrusted either to autonomous institutions or to
institutions directly incorporated in the framework of the public
service, but that one or other of these systems should be decided
upon to the exclusion of any intermediate mixed system. It finds
that the Government now often intervenes not only on fundamental
questions, but even in the ordinary day-to-day activities of the
institutions. The result is—declares the Report—a drag upon the
wheels of administration and an increase in the administrative work
and costs, the situation being made worse by the fact that in many
funds the chairman is an official of the supervising ministry, which
results in a confusion as to competence which is prejudicial to control.
The Mission concludes that " full autonomy " should be restored to
the insurance institutions.
It will be as well, therefore, to examine more closely this question
of autonomy in relation to the legislation in force, to its practical
application, and to possible new regulations.
It is necessary first of all, when considering the working of
any insurance institution, to make a clear distinction between the
authority which lays down the regulations, the administrative
authority and the supervisory authority.
The State reserves the right to issue the rules of insurance
institutions dependent upon the Ministry of Labour, and these
rules are published in the Government Gazette after very
careful preparation, that is to say : (a) after consultation with the
governing body of the institution concerned, when a careful
investigation is made into the financial position and aims of the
institution ; (b) after an actuarial and financial study of the proposed
rules ; (c) after consultation with the Social Insurance Council.

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

An effort has been made to give as much authority as possible
to this Council. It is with this object in view that, in addition to the
representatives mentioned in the Report of the Mission (competent
public officials, insured people, employers, university professors and
experts), there are also two members of the Chamber of Deputies
on the Social Insurance Council, one from the Government side and
one from the opposition. In this way, parliamentary supervision of
the rules laid down is assured. Furthermore, since the rules are in
the form of a ministerial Decree (and not an Act) they are not
beyond the supervision of the Council of State either as to legality
or as to expediency.
The administration of each insurance fund is left entirely to
its governing body, without the possibility of any intervention
whatever by the State.
From the moment when the rules are published, the State
has no right to intervene in their application. Consequently there
is no reason to fear any slowing down in administration, or any
increase in administrative work or expenses.
Until special insurance tribunals are set up, questions concerning
the application of the rules with regard to insurance obligations,
payment and rates of contribution, and the granting of insurance
benefit (which is in the hands of the administrative authorities
of the competent institutions themselves) are dealt with by the
ordinary tribunals and by the Council of State. It is inexact, therefore, as far as these points—which are the very basis of social
insurance—are concerned, to say that the State intervenes in the
ordinary daily activities of the institutions. The State has reserved
the right to express an opinion with regard to decisions taken
by the fund's administrative authorities concerning the personnel of
the institution, but the exercise of this right, which is, to a certain
extent, unpopular with the administrative organs, does not entail
any delay or increase in costs. In any case, the changes made in
personnel do not affect the aims of social insurance any more than
they do the normal everyday working. They relate to the organisation of administration—a point which is dealt with below.
Finally, the application of the administrative and economic
statutory provisions is under the supervision of a special inspection
service attached to the Ministry of Labour, the members of which
do not participate in the administration of the institutions, so that
there is no risk that the supervision might be prejudiced.
The two methods of organising the administration of the social
insurance institutions mentioned in the Report (independent institutions or institutions directly incorporated in the framework of the
public service) are not the only possible solutions of this problem,
which is one of providing for the needs of the insured, a task which
is, after all, the only purpose of any adequate organisation of insurance institutions.
When the Report refers to " autonomous " institutions, it is
evident, according to administrative terminology, t h a t self-governing or decentralised institutions are intended. "Decentralisation"
and its opposite " centralisation " are, however, by their very
nature capable of graduation and are mutually complementary.
It is impossible that complete decentralisation or complete centralisation should exist within a State. A more analytical study of
this question would, however, be outside the scope of the present
investigation, and we would only add that autonomy constitutes

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359

a limitation of the omnipotence of the State and encourages the
political education of citizens by stimulating their interest in matters
within the sphere in question, which they not only supervise, but
also manage and direct. It is for this reason that the principle of
autonomy has been followed in the organisation of social insurance
in Greece.
Examination of the problem reveals that there is in administrative law an acknowledged degree of decentralisation implying the
management of some public affairs by the elected representatives
of the interested parties, who in turn are also responsible for nominating those who are to carry out the actual work : this is " decentralisation "—administration of a part of public affairs by institutions
which collaborate with the interested parties and with the officials
appointed by the central authority. But this system does not apply
to the case under consideration, which is, nevertheless, also a form
of autonomy. The fact that the Minister reserves the right to approve
(not to modify) decisions concerning personnel amounts to nothing
more than the exercise of a form of supervision.
In view of the fact that neither decentralisation nor centralisation can ever be more than relative, the degree of one or the other
must necessarily depend upon the circumstances of the case, the
aims pursued, the conditions and people concerned.
Studies already made of this subject have produced the following
conclusion :
Decentralisation, in order to give satisfactory results, demands
(a) the existence of adequate administrative personnel, (b) uniformity of principles and programmes and (c) organisation of supervision.
The appointment of officials of the Ministry of Labour to administrative posts in insurance institutions of relatively recent date in
Greece meets points (a) and (b). These officials, trained in theory
and practice, act as liaison officers with the Ministry, which issues
directives ; on the other hand, they constitute only a very small
minority in the governing bodies, which include many members
from among insured people and employers. The Ministry of Labour
inspection service officials do not take part in the deliberations of
the governing bodies.
Finally, with regard to the "full autonomy" of insurance institutions mentioned in the Report of the Mission, it is generally agreed
that supervision is an indispensable condition for the proper
working of self-governing institutions. The conception of administrative autonomy without supervision is impossible in any
well-organised State.
Employment and Employment Organisation
With regard to employment and organisation of employment
the Mission says very rightly that Greece suffers from a manpower
surplus and that the problem of underemployment, already evident
before the war, has been aggravated by the occupation and by the
damage which the national economy continues to sustain on account
of the activities of bands of foreign terrorists. We consider, however,
that the existence of a demographic problem in Greece—a condition already observed before the war—is due to the fact that the

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

natural resources of the country have never, for lack of capital,
been fully exploited.
The fact that the Greek financial market was kept supplied
with productive loans contracted during the twenty years preceding
the war had a direct bearing on the increase in national income and
the improvement in the standard of living and level of employment
of the population. If the Greek financial market had continued to
be stimulated by the influx of capital, the economic and social
situation of the country would certainly be very different at the
present time : the rise in national income resulting from the development of unexploited resources would have increased the opportunities for productive employment and the standard of living would,
in consequence, have risen.
The war, the occupation and the struggle against armed bands
whose attack has been organised and supported by every means
from abroad have not only hindered the economic development
of the country, but have caused material damage to the national
economy on such a scale that the repair of this damage alone demands an enormous capital expenditure. The aid given by the
Allies is of considerable importance, and for the future development
of the productive branches of our economy we have confidence in
the spirit of enterprise and in the capacities of which the Greek
people have never failed to give ample proof in difficult times.
Fortunately, the greater part of the productive resources of the
country remain intact, and there is thus the possibility of employing
a higher percentage of the population than before the war. This
objective, whose attainment would to a large extent solve our demographic problem, cannot, however, be arrived at without a supply
of capital which the finances of the country cannot provide on account
of the loss of national wealth and of the damage caused by the war,
the occupation and the struggle against the terrorists. It is suggested
by the Mission—with reason—that in the meantime, and until the
country has attained full economic development, the demographic
problem should be solved by the emigration of surplus manpower
to other European and extra-European countries.
The suggestions made by the Mission as to the policy to be
followed in this matter will certainly be given consideration by the
Greek Government, the more so because they are, on several points,
in accordance with the purpose of the Government itself.
The standpoint adopted by Greece at the Rome Conference,
that the emigration of Greek workers to the 16 countries participating in the Marshall Plan is at present impossible, is based on the
very exceptional situation in which the country is placed by her
struggle for liberty, democracy and the integrity of her territory.
The mobilisation of a considerable proportion of our manpower,
the fact that the reconstruction of the country is far from complete
and the limited number of workers required by the countries participating in the Marshall Plan impose upon us, for the present, a
restrictive policy with regard to the emigration of manpower.
The Report of the Mission states that "others, of known leftist
views, apparently do not register at a l l " at the employment offices
and t h a t there exists, according to certain declarations made to it,
" a sort of unofficial employment market which has grown up
among them and which avoids use of the State placement machinery ". This passage in the Report does not tally with the facts.
In no case do employment offices enquire into the political

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361

opinions of unemployed persons who apply to them, and it would
be impossible, for obvious reasons, for the personnel in employment offices to enquire into the political convictions of unemployed
workers registering with them. No unemployed person is required
to present a certificate of his opinions or any other document indicating his political convictions. The Report states that an identity
card must be produced when application is made to an employment
office, and that this enables the office and the employer to identify
" undesirables " and provides a basis for discrimination in the
matter of employment. The indications on the police identity card
cannot, in fact, in any way reveal the political opinions of the
unemployed person. Neither the offices nor the employers, therefore, have the possibility—even if they so desired—of discovering
from the identity card the political opinions of the person seeking
employment and they can, therefore, neither recommend nor advise
against employment of an applicant on these grounds. The presentation of an identity card at the employment office is indispensable
because it is the only means whereby the employment office can
verify the name of the applicant and because the address of the
applicant figures on the identity card, thus enabling the office to
ensure that the unemployed person belongs to the district which
the office serves—a necessary precaution, particularly in the large
towns, where an applicant could register with four or five employment offices and thus falsify the unemployment figures.
It will be seen, therefore, that the obligation to present an
identity card to the employment office officials constitutes no
disadvantage for the applicant and, on the other hand, considerably
facilitates the work of the officials.
With regard to the organisation of the employment offices, we
wish to emphasise that it has not yet been possible to regulate the
functioning of the offices on account of a lack of personnel ; this
situation will be remedied as soon as the budget permits.
The Mission is right in pointing out that the protection
accorded by Act No. 118 is excessive and that this law may be
considered as extremely advanced. We would like to point out in
passing that it is not the first time that Greece has been in the
vanguard of progress in the field of social policy.
There is no doubt that the monopoly of the employment market
by the State, which prevents the employer from engaging workers
or salaried employees without the intervention of the employment
offices, is unpopular with employers. For this reason it is proposed
to adopt in part the suggestion of the Mission and grant to employers
the right to engage at their own discretion a proportion of their
personnel, but with the employment offices acting as intermediaries.
We cannot, however, accept the suggestion of the Mission that
undertakings should be exempted from their obligation to pay
into the Unemployment Fund the wages prescribed by law in the
event of the termination of an employment contract (No. 118,
section 9, paragraph 6). This provision aims at counteracting a
tendency on the part of certain employers to dismiss their workers
and it is considered necessary from a social point of view in the
present conditions of the country.
On the question of vocational training, it is true that there
exists a grave lack of skilled workers. This lack will become increasingly acute as soon as the totalitarian war against Greece is ended,
because the industries and undertakings will then be able to develop,
24

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LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

thanks to Allied assistance. In some industries technical improvements have been made during the last few years. New repair
techniques have been developed and new tools have been put into
service, and this development itself calls for more training and
specialisation among skilled workers. With the assistance of American experts, a programme is in course of preparation whereby
extensive technical training facilities will be available to industrial
workers and craftsmen. It is proposed to create a central public
service in the Ministry of Labour to study the directives and to
supervise the application of measures for improving elementary
technical training. This centre would also prepare a general programme and detailed plans providing for apprenticeship by training on the job as well as instruction in manual work at special
occupational schools.
These proposals aim at (a) the establishment of methods and
principles of training which will include vocational guidance ;
(b) the working out of methods of training and administrative
technique for occupational schools ; (c) the investigation of conditions of work for skilled workers ; (d) the establishment of an
apprenticeship system in shops and factories.
The fundamental principle of this programme is that the active
participation of employees and employers and of their occupational
organisations is indispensable.
It is hoped, in spite of present difficulties, that these measures
in regard to vocational training may be applied with as little delay
as possible, since it is generally agreed that the matter is urgent.
Conditions of Employment—Tike Regulations
and their Enforcement
In this chapter the Mission deals at length with the development
of labour legislation in Greece, and particularly with regulations
concerning hours of work. It would, perhaps, have been well to add
that Greece was among the first countries to apply the eight-hour
day, in a period when many European countries that were more
advanced industrially and economically hesitated to admit this
vital and well-founded demand of the working classes. Although its
economy was very undeveloped at the time, Greece hastened to
ratify the Convention on hours of work which was adopted in 1919
by the Washington Conference, but it should be remembered that
long before this, as early as 1912, Greek labour legislation included
Decrees for the regulation of working hours.
The development of Greek economy before the last war led the
legislature to provide for a working day of less than eight hours in
certain occupations (for bank employees, office personnel, etc., a
seven-hour day was applied), but it was not possible to enact general
regulations prescribing a working day of less than eight hours.
The question will undoubtedly be considered again and a shorter
working day will certainly be introduced as soon as the country has
reorganised its industries and completed its industrialisation. This
was no doubt what the legislative body had in view when it gave the
Government power to reduce hours of work (Act No. 41/44 amending
section 16 of Act No. 3502/28).
There is another factor to be considered in the application of the
labour legislation, namely, the attitude of the workers. They have

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become aware of their rights. They know they can demand that
employers shall fully apply the statutory provisions concerning hours
of work, and the employers have realised that they must not seek to
evade these regulations. As a result of the changes brought about
during the war, the occupation and the post-war period, there has
been practically no breach by employers of the law concerning the
eight-hour day, in spite of the fact that the labour inspectors responsible for supervising the application of the Act are too few, as the
Report rightly asserts.
We are also in agreement with the observation of the Mission that
labour legislation should be consolidated. We would add that the
multiplicity of existing laws is due very largely to the exceptional
conditions created by the world war, the occupation and the continuance of war in Greece up to the present time. It has constantly been
necessary to adopt urgent new measures to deal with situations
which have arisen, and these additional measures, together with
those already in force, have created an accumulation of texts. This
situation will be remedied when a Labour Code has been drawn up by
the administration. This is in preparation and the Government
proposes to publish it at an early date.
The codification of the labour legislation and its publication in
small volumes will considerably facilitate the task of the inspection
services. When the labour inspectorate has been reinforced, a return
to the former systematic supervision of undertakings will be easier,
and it will be possible to ensure strict application of any health and
safety regulations the inspectors may recommend.
With regard to the Mission's suggestion on the increase of technical
personnel, etc., in the labour inspectorate, all the competent authorities recognise the need for taking such a step as soon as possible,
but for the moment this cannot be done owing to the economic
situation of the country. As soon as circumstances permit, the labour
inspectorate will be reinforced by recruiting the necessary qualified
personnel. The object will be to have a sufficient number of higher
grade officials in all the large industrial centres of the country.
Experience has, in fact, proved that highly qualified and expert
officials should be placed at the head of the principal inspection
offices, while the less responsible tasks should be left to the labour
supervisors. According to the present law, the labour supervisors
can be promoted to the higher posts, but we are nevertheless of the
opinion that the office in an important industrial centre should be
directed by an official with a university degree who has acquired the
necessary specialised knowledge.
Women labour supervisors may also be promoted to higher posts
if they possess the necessary qualifications. (At the moment the
Athens office is under the direction of a woman.) Experience has
shown, however, that the work is too arduous for married women, and
in general women in Greece leave their employment on marriage.
For this reason it is considered desirable to limit the number of posts
of this kind open to women.
With regard to the recommendation in the Report that higher
qualifications should be demanded of inspectors and supervisors,
we would point out that Acts Nos. 4819 and 5528 provide for an
entrance examination and for a year's probation before permanent
appointment. This regulation has not been applied since the liberation
because of the urgent need for the immediate appointment of staff
in the various inspection offices.

364

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The Report also contains suggestions as to courses of training
abroad which would give personnel the opportunity of extending
their theoretical and practical knowledge, and the organisation
of conferences between inspectors and supervisors of the same regions
or of the whole country. These are all projects which the Government
has in mind, but which cannot be realised until order has been
re-established in the country.
The Report maintains that it is desirable t h a t the inspection
services should not have recourse to the police for the exercise of
certain functions. In this connection it should be noted that the law
provides that such assistance shall be accorded only in districts
where there is a shortage of staff. Furthermore, the civil officials
of the labour inspectorate carry out their duties satisfactorily, and the
police will certainly not be called upon to assist in this matter once
an adequate personnel has been provided in each district.
Provisions with regard to travel facilities and allowances for
inspection officials, as suggested in the Report, obviously depend upon
the financial position of the country.
The Mission attaches particular importance to the granting of
work books to children and young persons. This is compulsory under
Act No. 4029 on the employment of women and young persons.
The Mission found, however, that the number of work books actually
distributed to young workers since the liberation was relatively
small. Without in any way denying the importance of the question
or the need for strict enforcement of the law, we would point out
that there are very few cases of the employment of children under
the statutory minimum age. The exploitation of child labour,
frequently practised in the past in other countries, has never been a
feature of Greek life, and it will certainly not be introduced now that
the working classes have become conscious of the rights which they
have acquired during and since the second World War.
However, in this matter of the issue of work books for children
and the medical examination of young persons to determine aptitude
for work, we would state that, since the investigations of the Mission,
considerable progress has been made as a result of the creation of a
health service attached to the Ministry of Labour ; three doctors
working under the central service collaborate with the municipal
dispensaries and with the Social Insurance Institute services. The
new service is a very active one, and it issues work books to children
and young persons after a careful medical examination. The officers
of the service, in collaboration with the technical inspection officers,
visit workplaces and where necessary analyse the fumes arising
from manufacturing processes and arrange for adequate measures of
protection. The Mission found that health conditions in certain
small workshops were not satisfactory. That this is so cannot be
denied, but it should be borne in mind that the number of these
workshops is relatively insignificant ; as soon as economic conditions
permit, the existence of workshops which do not conform to the
health regulations will not be tolerated. The war, the occupation and
the conditions prevailing since the liberation have made it impossible
for the labour inspection services to complete the task of improving
health conditions in certain artisan workshops, which—as we have
said—are very few in number. The equipment in industry is in general
of recent origin, dating back only a few decades.
The Mission has expressed itself in favour of the introduction
of a continuous working day, as applied in many countries. Quite

APPENDICES

365

apart from the differences of opinion which exist concerning the
value of this régime in general, we consider that the midday break
is absolutely necessary in Greece (the southernmost country in
Europe) on account of the climate.
On the ground that the labour inspectors are overburdened, the
Mission recommends that they should be relieved of the task of
settling labour disputes, collective or individual. It cannot be denied
t h a t such disputes should be settled by experts. Hence it has been
decided to restrict the functions of the labour inspectors in this
field. Under Act No. 560/1945 (section 17, paragraph 1) there are
five " reporters on labour disputes " and four assistant " reporters ".
These officials have already been made responsible for settling both
collective and individual disputes in the Athens and Piraeus district,
and it is proposed to extend the system to other large industrial
centres. Since, however, it is not possible at the present time to
increase the number of these officials sufficiently to permit of the
appointment of one to each district, we consider that the labour
inspectors cannot be relieved of this supplementary duty. It should
be noted, furthermore, that the intervention of the labour inspector
is often more effective, as he has a certain prestige with the employers
in his district.
We are entirely in agreement with the Mission concerning the
creation of labour courts. The judicial procedure for the social
insurance courts has already been defined and published in the
Government Gazette (No. 511 of 25 February 1939). It is extremely
simple ; the courts will be tripartite and will be presided over by
a magistrate ; their conditions of operation will depend upon the
financial possibilities of the country. Pending their establishment,
the existing legislative provisions allow the civil courts to deal, by
summary procedure, with individual labour disputes.
The Mission has also suggested the adoption of certain measures
with regard to home work. We have no objection in principle to the
suggestions put forward, but we do not consider that any systematic
supervision is possible in this field, seeing that the number of workers
concerned is very small and, as the Mission itself admits, supervision
is in practice very difficult.
Another subject dealt with in the Report is the protection of
agricultural workers. Here again, we have no objection in principle,
but we would point out that Greece has no agricultural day labourers
like those in countries with a more advanced economy, the reason
being the progressive agricultural policy which has been followed.
Land has been expropriated and given to agricultural workers, who
have thus become smallholders. This system has certain economic
disadvantages, since the subdivision of rural property into small lots
makes agricultural mechanisation more difficult.
To solve the
problem, agricultural co-operatives have had to be formed, and they
are becoming more and more widespread.
This question might be studied in conjunction with that of
organising a scheme of medical assistance for agricultural workers,
a point we have already touched upon in the section on social
insurance.
With regard to maternity protection, we consider that the present
legislation is adequate, since it provides that women shall not work
during the six weeks after confinement and that they may stop
working six weeks before. During these twelve weeks they have a
right to pregnancy and confinement allowances granted by the

366

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Social Insurance Institute. The Institute also gives them free medical,
pharmaceutical and hospital aid and a nursing allowance during the
three months following confinement. Employers are required, under
Articles 657 and 658 of the new Civil Code, to pay fifteen days' wages
to their women workers on maternity leave who have less than a
year's service, and one month's wages to those with more than a
year's service. It should be added that in most cases the large undertakings pay their women workers, and especially the salaried
employees, the full remuneration for the period of leave, within
reasonable limits.
It is true that there is no provision in Greek legislation for the
protection of women workers' children, but crèches and other institutions will be established as soon as the general condition of the
country permits. Some time ago the insurance fund for workers in
the textile industry—an industry employing a large number of women
—was requested to study the question of establishing and running
institutions of this kind.
The Co-operative Movement
The Greek Government notes with satisfaction the Mission's
findings as to the existence of a widespread co-operative movement
both in the country districts and in the towns.
The development o: agricultural co-operatives, which date back
more than thirty years, is due to the considerable financial assistance
which the Government has provided through the Greek Agricultural
Bank ; the credits granted to peasants have by now reached a
total of hundreds of milliards of drachmae, and three quarters of
the sum are distributed by the agricultural co-operatives.
The agricultural co-operatives also distributed the supplies
imported by U.N.R.R.A., and they supervise the pooling of agricultural products.
On the subject of urban co-operatives—especially the consumer
co-operatives, which contribute to the raising of the workers' standard of living—we would add the following observations.
The Co-operatives as Distributive

Agencies

The co-operatives in Greece enjoy complete economic freedom
within the framework of the general objectives they have freely
set themselves and defined in their rules. Although they may be
lacking in commercial experience, their activity is extensive. For
example, the co-operative of the personnel of the Piraeus Port
Authority, which has 735 members, had a turnover in 1947 of over
2,000 million drachmae ; the Public Employees' Co-operative Union
had a turnover of 4,000 million drachmae in ten months. Many
other examples could be cited.
Regulations Preventing Co-operative Development
All the laws and regulations introduced during the period of
dictatorship or of enemy occupation tliat aimed at interference
with the operation of the co-operatives have been formally repealed.
Greek legislation on co-operatives is today inspired by a liberal

APPENDICES

367

and democratic spirit, and refrains from all interference with their
working.
Credits Granted to Co-operatives
Since December 1946, by a decision of the Currency Commission,
an over-all credit of 25 million drachmae has been made available
by the Bank of Greece for the benefit of consumer co-operatives.
This credit represents 200,000 drachmae per member.
The credits may be drawn on at any bank chosen by the cooperative, on the advice of a board which, as a rule, includes representatives of the co-operatives. Nearly half the sum allocated has
already been utilised.
Finally, the Government is considering the reopening of the
co-operative school, which in its first period of activity gave good
results and trained a large number of experts who are now directing
agricultural co-operatives.
Organisation of Administrative Services
This question is of particular interest to the Government. It
is causing considerable concern at the present time, and the efforts
being made to solve it are hampered by established traditions and
by the resistance of those whose interest it is to prolong the existing
situation.
The problem is sufficiently important to justify a special study.
Any analysis should take into consideration the results of past
experience, which may differ from one service to another. A committee of experts has been set up, which has undertaken the preparation of draft regulations for the public services with reference
to the actual situation in the various services and to any new conditions which may have resulted from the co-ordinated and uniform
policy that has been followed for some time, particularly in the
economic and social field.
As regards the adoption of means to increase the efficiency of
administration and speed up the work, the following observations
should be made. In order t h a t the Ministry of Labour may accomplish its task in the wide field which falls within its competence
—a task that is expanding with the steadily increasing emphasis
laid on social policy—it is imperative, especially under the difficult
economic conditions of today, not only to carry out the necessary
reforms with regard to the definition and exercise of functions in
certain services, but also to reinforce, at least for the present, both
the central and the regional services. In order to do this, the staffs
must be brought up to the necessary strength by filling the existing
gaps, as suggested by the Mission, so that the services concerned
will be in a position to carry out the tasks assigned to them.
We consider that the proposals which we have described and the
efforts made represent a satisfactory application of the fundamental
principle enunciated in the Report, that " the efficiency of an administration is primarily governed by the general measures taken to
organise it on a rational plan which will facilitate its working " ;
this plan should aim in particular at providing " each of these services with a personnel the strength of which is in proportion to the
extent of its responsibilities ", the quality of the personnel itself
being another factor that should be taken into account.

368

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The Mission refers to the absence of close collaboration between
the various statistical services. Legislation has been adopted to
ensure the necessary co-ordination in this field, but it has not been
possible to apply these measures since the liberation owing to the
mobilisation of certain experts. We would point out that, conscious
of this deficiency, we have insisted in the Bill concerning the statistical services prepared by the Ministry of Co-ordination that
" the statistical service of the Ministry of Labour should be maintained, provided that it is properly organised and given the necessary
personnel so that it may be in a position to furnish the fundamenta
data indispensable to any analysis of the situation and to appraise
the effects of any measures adopted ". The statistical services of
the various Ministries would, naturally, continue to accomplish
the tasks assigned to them, but, in order to co-ordinate their efforts
and make methods of work uniform, it would be well, as we have
suggested, that the Ministry of Co-ordination or some other department should be made responsible for centralising all statistics.
The Report contains recommendations as to the transfer of
duties to a new specialised body, and especially for taking over
" all disputes arising out of industrial relations ". As mentioned
in the section on social insurance, preparatory steps have already
been taken to set up social insurance courts, and these will soon
begin to function. Certain provisions will be adopted with regard
to the composition and operation of these courts to enable them to
deal also with labour disputes.
We have no objections to raise in connection with the passage
in the Report on staff regulations. On the contrary, we attach
great importance to all the suggestions put forward. These seem
to us to contain the essential principles of such regulations, the
application of which is in our opinion the only method of securing
an efficient and suitable staff. We would add that even before the
war the matter was being studied in Greece, especially at the time
of the organisation of the Social Insurance Institute, and that very
good results have been, obtained in practice.
One of the first steps necessary in order to attain the desired
objective would be an improvement in salary rates for officials in
the administrative services and the provision of suitable working
conditions, but these reforms depend upon the financial resources
of the country.
The allocation of social insurance benefits is a point in connection
with the reorganisation of the various services which calls for particular attention. This function is to be entrusted to individuals,
and not to collective bodies as in the past. Experience has shown
that better results are obtained when this responsibility is assumed
by a person rather than by a collective body. Efforts are also being
made to increase the value of the social insurance service ; the
position of insured people will be studied with the greatest care and
closest attention.
It is true, as the Report states, that a rational organisation of
the administrative system may ensure efficiency, but the main
factor in the proper working of an administrative service is to be
found-—as we noted above—in the intrinsic value of its personnel.
We consider it desirable to state briefly our opinion on these problems.
The experience in matters of social policy which we have acquired
as a result of the work of the Ministry of Labour has shown the
urgent need of finding methods to achieve the cohesion and equi-

APPENDICES

369

librium indispensable to the social insurance services and to social
agencies in general. In the last few years we have impressed on
the personnel of the services in question that all social insurance
problems must be solved rapidly because the people concerned
need immediate assistance. If the objectives of social insurance
are to be attained, distress must be relieved with as little delay as
possible, and the formation of appropriate and competent administrative bodies is imperative if this task is to be accomplished.
Adequate training not only enables an official to do his work
easily, but makes him take a greater interest in it. But in estimating
the efficiency of each official, account must be taken of what we
would call his " professional maturity ". The official who has
received an adequate training and is fully conscious of the meaning
and intentions of social policy should be interested in every aspect
of the service and, while considering them in an objective manner,
he must bring to each the same care that he would devote to a
personal matter ; he must assess their importance from the point
of view of the general welfare ; he must show initiative and at
the same time conform strictly to the legislation and not lose sight
of the aims of the service. Nevertheless, the professional maturity
of an official, which depends upon his personal qualities, can only
be determined by close attention to the way in which he does his
work ; it is for his superiors to decide in the matter.
This is what we understand by " professional maturity ", an
expression which corresponds to the " intrinsic value of the personnel " used by the Mission.
The Report deals at some length with the emergency measures
taken to purge the administrative services. The Mission observes
that " in view of the exceptionally serious situation existing in the
country, only the Government responsible for the fate of the country
has competence to determine the nature and extent of the measures
which it regards as necessary for purging the civil service and similar
administrative bodies ". In this connection we would like to cite
the remarks of a foreign publicist who, viewing conditions in Greece
after the liberation, wrote : " Many things can happen if persons
inspired by certain aims . . . succeed in penetrating into the
public administration. These individuals can exert a steady influence,
all the stronger because they occupy secondary posts and not those
most in the public eye, since this makes it easier for them to avoid
the check of public opinion and they do not have to answer for
their acts to that same public opinion."
Finally, with regard to the observations in the Report concerning
the participation of officials in the various councils and committees,
we would point out that such participation rests upon the basic
principle of tripartite representation. For the reasons which we
have set forth at the end of our remarks on social insurance, it is
considered desirable and even indispensable that public officials
should participate in these councils and committees and that they
should preside over most of the social insurance agencies. Their
specialised knowledge is particularly useful, and their presence ensures
that uniformity of principle and action to which we have also
referred at the end of the section on social insurance.

APPENDIX II
REPORT OF T H E SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE
OF THE NINTH PAN-HELLENIC TRADE UNION CONGRESS
The Ninth Pan-Hellenic Trade. Union Congress continued the
series of Pan-Hellenic workers' congresses which began in 1918.
In t h a t year, the Greek General Confederation of Labour was set
up, and according to its rules a congress must be held every two
years in order to constitute, as required by law, the general meeting
of the members of the Confederation, which is the supreme trade
union organisation in the country.
The holding of the Congress had become imperative because,
since August 1946, the Confederation had been administered by a
Provisional Executive Committee appointed by the president of
the court of first instance at Athens in pursuance of Article 69 of
the Civil Code, a decision of the Council of State having declared
the former Executive Committee of the Confederation devoid of
legal existence. It was essential that the workers' organisations
should be able freely to elect their supreme executive bodies and
their delegates, and thus put an end to the abnormal situation in
which the trade union movement in the country had been since
1936.
In spite of the difficulty of communicating with the provincial
centres, the great popular excitement and the antagonisms bred of
political, ideological, or socio-political considerations or resulting
from the events of 1944, preparations for the Congress were completed
by the required date so that all the workers' centres and independent
trade unions affiliated to the Confederation were able to convene
in good time the general meetings of their members for electing
their delegates.
Under Article 27 of the rules of the Confederation, the Congress
is composed of :
(a) the members of the Executive Committee and of the Control
Committee ;
(b) the delegates of the workers' centres (one delegate for up
to 10,000 members, two delegates for up to 30,000 members, three
delegates for up to 50,000 members, four delegates for more than
50,000 members) ;
(c) the delegates of the trade unions (one delegate for unions
with not more than 500 members, two delegates for unions with
over 500 and not more than 1,000 members, etc.).
For the organisation of the Congress, which, originally convened
for 7 December 1947, opened on 28 March 1948, the Confederation
had distributed several circulars between 13 January and the end
of February 1948, indicating clearly the prescribed number of dele-

APPENDICES

371

gates to be appointed by each trade union, the method of voting
to be applied in the general meetings, the obligation to ensure the
presence of a representative of the judicial authorities to sign the
records of the elections, etc.
In circulars Nos. 45 and 48 of 1948, the Confederation made it
clear that only organisations which were affiliated to it and whose
delegates were provided with proper credentials would have the
right to vote at the Congress, and that delegates of unions of pensioners, agricultural workers, tuberculous persons and pedlars would
not be admitted to the Congress ; neither would delegates of antitrade union organisations be permitted access to the Congress, since
these organisations must be absorbed into the existing trade unions.
These clear and complete instructions were in conformity with the
rules of the Confederation.
On the ground that the Congress would have a beneficial influence
on the further development of the trade union movement, the
Government decided at the request of the Confederation that a
public holiday (a Sunday) should be considered as a working day
in all branches of activity and that one half of the additional wages
paid for that day (the supplementary pay for Sunday work is 75 per
cent, of the normal rate) would be turned over to the Confederation
to cover the costs of the Congress and the delegates' expenses.
The extra day's work was done on Sunday, 14 March. The
results obtained were satisfactory, if allowance is made for the
fact that 14 March was the last Sunday of Carnival, a festival very
widely observed in Greece, for the financial situation of the country
in general and of distributive trades in particular, and also for the
fact that a certain number of large industrial undertakings remained
closed on that day and did not authorise work. A large number
of salaried employees (in banking, commerce, etc.) showed a disinclination to work on the last day of Carnival, and there were
therefore many absences among them. There was, on the contrary,
a large attendance of industrial workers ; it might even be said
that they responded to the appeal without exception, save in those
cases where the employers refused to open the works. Thus, in
the Piraeus district the abstentions were about 20-25 per cent. ;
in the Rouf region work was carried on in 14 out of 18 industrial
undertakings, representing 65 per cent, of the total number of
workers ; in the Nea Ionia region and in the provinces there was
a 75 per cent, attendance.
By a decision of the Council of Ministers, Congress delegates
from the provinces were provided with free return tickets, by rail,
boat or motorbus.
The agenda of the Congress was drawn up within the prescribed
time-limit ; it was issued in circular No. 41 of 13 January 1948
and also published in the press. The items were as follows :
1. Official opening of the Congress by the Secretary-General.
2. Election of the Credentials Committee.
3. Report of the Credentials Committee.
4. Election of officers (the President, three Vice-Presidents, three
secretaries and three members).
5. Election of committees :
(a) Committee on social and economic demands ;
(b) Committee on methods of organisation ;

372

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
(g)
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Committee on international relations ;
Committee on amendments to the rules ;
Committee on social insurance and legislation ;
Committee on national and European reconstruction ;
Administrative Control Committee.

Administrative and financial report.
Determination of policy of the Confederation.
Social and financial demands of the Confederation.
National and European reconstruction.
Form and structure of the organisation.
Workers' international relations.
Amendment of the rules.
Election of the Secretary-General and trade union bodies.
Declaration to the working class.
Closing of the Congress.

It was decided that the Congress should be held in the Piraeus
Theatre, lent by the municipality, and that it would open at 10
a.m. on 28 March 1948. It should be noted that during the three
months of preparatory work, the members of the Provisional Executive Committee of the Confederation frequently visited the provincial towns in order to give instructions and to collaborate in
convening the general meetings called to appoint the committees
for the workers' centres and to elect the delegates to the Congress.
A
The preparations being complete, the delegates from trade
unions and workers' centres began to arrive in Athens on 20 March
1948. They deposited with the Secretariat-General of the Confederation the minutes of the general meetings that elected them.
The Secretariat, having received their credentials, drew up the
list of trade unions which were members of the Confederation and
of the delegates to the Ninth Trade Union Congress. The verification of credentials by the Confederation was completed, in accordance with the rules, on the evening before the opening of the Congress. The lists were then declared closed. The number of delegates
was 1,544, representing 1,441 organisations.
Comparison of these figures with the results of the three elections
which took place during the course of the Congress shows that
72 delegates did not vote in these elections, either because they
were absent or for other reasons. According to information supplied
to us by the Confederation at our request, the unions and their
delegates were registered, and the figures showing union membership
and the number of voters in the general meetings for each town and
branch were given, in the order of arrival of delegates and on the
basis of the minutes of the general meetings duly signed by a representative of the judicial authorities. The inscriptions which figured
in the register and the register itself must, therefore, be considered
as authentic and official.

APPENDICES

373

It is clear from the above that the Ninth Pan-Hellenic Trade
Union Congress was representative in character. By comparison
with the preceding Congress, it represented a larger number of
workers, and it included delegates from nearly all the trade unions
in all provincial centres where there are wage earners. It should
be noted that before 1936 the number of trade unionists was not
more than 70,000-80,000, and that only half that number paid
their contributions regularly. Before 1920, when the Federation
of Post, Telegraph and Telephone Workers (a public employees'
union) belonged to the Confederation, at a time when, owing to
social developments after the first World War, trade union organisation was strong in Greece, as elsewhere, there were 385 unions with
84,920 members, of which the most important were : tobacco
workers, 16,000 ; railway workers, 9,000 ; seamen, 8,309 ; waiters,
3,345; carters, 3,065.
The table below shows by towns the geographical distribution
of the unions affiliated to the General Confederation of Labour,
their membership, the number of voters at the general meetings,
and the number of delegates to the Ninth Congress.

Centre

Athens
Salónica....
Piraeus
Patras
Kavalla
Volos
Xanthi
Drama
Kalamata..
Iraklion
Cyclades —
Larissa
Lesbos
Corfu
Euboia
Edessa
Aighion
Pyrgos
Naoussa. ..
Chios
Verroia.
Komotini..
Kozani
Canea
Tripolis
Lamia
Jannina....
Trikkala...
Agrinion...
Serres
Rethymnos.
Elefsis
Kilkis
Missolonghi.

No. of
delegates

No. of

207
180
122
81
44
39
22
26
40
34
43
44
46
36
43
21
32
35
4
14
12
21
13
23
19
17
18
15
7
15
26
14
7
7

165
115
108
78
32
34
19
24
40
34
43
44
46
36
43
21
31
35
2
14
12
21
13
23
19
17
18
15
7
15
26
14
7
7

unions

Membership

56,905
45,524
22,895
8,100
7,816
5,705
4,802
3,398
2,448
3,410
2,750

—

2,346
2,794
2,014
2,252
1,942
1,398
1,608
2,336
1,088
1,472
1,224
1,055
1,106

968
877
991
870
857
799
789
728
574

No. of
voters

33,201
20,881
11,361
6,655
4,861
3,656
3,403
2,287
2,018
2,332
2,360

—
2,168
1,658
1,327
1,088
1,365
1,208
1,000
1,050

631
987
699
623
816
687
624
862
525
600
683
614
492
498

374

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

Centre

Zakynthos (Zante)

Arta

Messina
Thebes

Kefallinia (Ithaca)
Salamis
Porto Rafti
Atalanti
Stilis
Rhodes
Total

No. of
unions

Membership-

18
18
6
7
9
18
7
15
9
8
5
6
7
6
7
6
6
4
6
3
7
4
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
18
4

18
18
6
7
9
18
7
15
9
8
5
6
7
6
7
6
6
4
6
3
7
4
4
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
18
4

575
583
901
468
545
495
530
349
268
416
185
358
378
252
132
175
144
195
108
95
—
76
114
18
59
36
23
—
38
48
62
—
—

467
437
432
302
379
385
334
281
252
212
158
226
176
150
131
144
137
76
78
81
—
67
71
11
37
34
17
—
36
37
51
—
—

1,545

1,396

201,266

119,329

No. oí
delegates

No. of
voters

The Congress thus represented more than 200,000 trade unionists,
of whom more than 100,000 had attended the general meetings
convened to elect delegates.
It should be noted that the railway workers' and seamen's
unions had not held a general meeting. In accordance with the
special clauses that the rules of these unions include owing to the
fact t h a t the nature of their occupation makes it impossible for the
whole membership to attend general meetings at the headquarters
of the union, their delegates were nominated by the general council
of each organisation. This point was missed by some memners of
the Credentials Committee, and the question was quite unnecessarily
brought before the Congress.

Constituted as we have indicated above, and arousing general
interest both on the national and on the international level, the
Ninth Pan-Hellenic Trade Union Congress commenced its work
at the Piraeus Municipal Theatre, attended by 1,425 delegates of

APPENDICES

375

workers' organisations and centres. The opening was marked by
warm greetings from the Prime Minister published in the press,
and from the Minister of Labour through Mr. Papalekas, SecretaryGeneral to the Ministry.
Mr. Brown, representative of the American Federation of Labor,
Mr. Simpson, Labour Attaché to the American Embassy, together
with Mr. Miner, Mr. Strachan, Mr. Rudge and other foreign personalities, were present at the sittings. Mr. Price, of the International Labour Office, arrived on the second day of the Congress.
There were also present the public officials specified by law : Mr.
Papamichalopoulos, judge of the Piraeus court of first instance, as
representative of the judicial authorities, and the members of the
Ministry of Labour Supervisory Committee, under the chairmanship
of Mr. Pavlakis, Secretary-General. No political personality or
member of the Government had been invited, and none took part
in the Congress. An adequate force of police, under the direction
of Mr. Kanellopoulos, was responsible for the maintenance of order
and displayed commendable tact and restraint.
The Congress opened and began its work in auspicious circumstances. The speech by Mr. Brown, conveying the greetings of
fifteen million organised workers in the United States and giving
emphasis to the importance of the Congress for international trade
unionism, made a great impression. The Congress members welcomed
the representatives from abroad very cordially and greeted the name
of President Truman in Mr. Strachan's address with enthusiasm.
The first day was in fact devoted to eloquent speeches in honour of
Greece and the Allied democracies. The presence and speech of the
representative of the workers' organisations of the Dodecanese
were greeted with special emotion.
But towards the end of the sitting, the proposal put forward by
the outgoing Executive Committee to set up a committee to examine
the few contested credentials caused general agitation, and the
profound divergence of views represented at the Congress began to
make itself felt. The incident was provoked by the members of
the E.R.E.P.-E.M.E. group (Reformists) who, in opposition to the
outgoing Committee, intimated their intention of contesting the
validity of hundreds of credentials, and demanded a general verification.
The second day, except for the speech by Mr. Price, who had in
the meantime arrived from Geneva, was devoted to useless interventions by delegates from various workers' centres, which prevented
the Congress from beginning work on its agenda. The same thing
happened on the third day, when all that was done was to read innumerable telegrams from the provinces.
The Supervisory Committee, however, proceeded with its
advisory function and gave the necessary instructions for the observance of the rules of the Confederation. On the third day, in response
to written questions, it took two decisions which were communicated
to the Congress and published in the press.
By the first of these decisions, it ruled that as Mr. Theocharides,
a Workers' Party deputy, had resigned from his position as member
of the Provisional Executive, and as he had not been elected a
delegate of any other trade union, his participation in the Congress
was illegal unless—as the rules of the Confederation permitted—
the Congress itself modified the decision of the Executive Committee
accepting his resignation.

376

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

The second decision gave the opinion of the Supervisory Committee on the question of the anti-trade unionists and on the legal
procedure for the first and second verifications of credentials.
On the same day, a mixed Control Committee was at last
appointed, with the task of supervising the election of the President
and Vice-Presidents.
The whole of the fourth day was devoted to the election of officers
by secret ballot. This took place under the supervision of the representative of the judicial authorities and the Supervisory Committee, on
the basis of the list of Congress members and the delegates' identity
cards. The total number of delegates who voted was 1,345. The
E.R.E.P.-E.M.E. candidate received 545 votes, the outgoing Committee candidate 478, and Mr. Dimitratos 287, the other papers being
adjudged spoilt. The Supervisory Committee and the representative
of the judicial authorities, interpreting liberally section 21, paragraph 2, of the Legislative Decree of 15 May 1920 concerning trade
unions, and article 29 of the rules of the Confederation, declared the
officers elected, under Mr. Antipas as President, even though he
had not obtained an absolute majority. The officers began their
work on the next day, the fifth day of the Congress.
From then on, disagreement within the Congress became more
marked ; there were continual altercations between the leaders of
opposing groups, and their mutual recriminations augured anything
but smooth working. The supporters of the outgoing Committee,
after being subjected to violent and perhaps excessive attacks,
mainly directed against their leaders, left the Congress, followed
by 500 delegates chiefly from the northern provinces, with whom
they held meetings during three days at the Piraeus workers'
centre, in the course of which strong speeches were made against
the other side.
The Dimitratos group, which had continued for a further two
days to attend the meetings at the Municipal Theatre, also withdrew
and joined the meetings at the Piraeus workers' centre. The representatives of the independent unions of employees of banks and
public utility undertakings, together with the Liberal trade union
group, then withdrew after having placed a declaration in the hands
of the officers.
After these withdrawals, there were not enough delegates left
in the Theatre to form a quorum and they confined themselves to
criticising those who had withdrawn. As a result of the intervention
of the foreign trade unionists—in particular, Mr. Brown—who
watched the proceedings with disappointment, some efforts at
reconciliation were made ; the officers promised that the freedom
of speech and opinion of the opposition would be respected, and in this
way the dissident elements were able to return.
The report of the outgoing.Committ.ee was then presented and
adopted. On the tenth day the Congress met in a regular manner
with all groups taking part and, for the first time, the discussion of
the items on the agenda began. Mr. Patsantzis, Secretary-General
of the outgoing Committee, read his report, in which he analysed in
detail the Greek trade union movement since the war, the efforts
made and steps taken by the Executive Committee and the results
obtained. . . .
Nevertheless, it was impossible to proceed to any of the other
questions on the agenda, and the Congress was drawn into futile
recriminations and personal conflicts. The tension thus produced,

APPENDICES

377

together with the more or less evident inability of the President to
direct the debates, led finally to complete disorder.
It is to be regretted that the Congress did not discuss the serious
studies and the suggestions by the outgoing Committee on vital
questions concerning trade union organisation and the working class
in general. These suggestions related to the following points :
1. Elaboration of new rules for the Confederation.
2. Form and organisation of the trade union movement.
3. Labour legislation.
4. Social insurance.
5. Immediate demands.
6. Unemployment.
7. Organisation of young workers.
8. Financial report of the Confederation for the period 1 August
1946 to 31 December 1947.
9. Report on questions of international relations.
10. Report on the Marshall Plan.
The texts prepared expressed the views of the Confederation
on the above questions. The opinions of the other large group
(E.R.E.P.-E.M.E.) were given in part in the speech by their representative, Mr. Kyriakopoulos, now one of the officers of the Confederation.
A representative of the E.R.E.P.-E.M.E. group mounted the
rostrum and severely criticised the outgoing Committee, and from that
moment it became clear that it would be impossible for the Congress
to proceed with its meetings in a normal manner, for lack of the
mutual tolerance necessary to regular discussion. But in spite of the
uproar, it was decided to proceed on the morrow with the election
of the Secretary-General.
This election was held on 6 April under the supervision of the
judicial representative, the Supervisory Committee and the representative of the Ministry of Labour. The voting went on well into the
night. Once again the official list of delegates was used. The names
of 25 delegates with proper credentials, of whom 21 were late arrivals
from Zante, were added to the list by the judicial representative in
virtue of his powers under the law and with the approval of the
various groups. Three candidates for the office of Secretary-General
had accepted nomination : Mr. F. Makris, Mr. A. Dimitratos and
Mr. A. Strouzas.
The day before, a group of 15 delegates belonging to the Left
group, the majority of them from Salónica, had handed in a declaration—also published in the press—in which they stated that, considering the turn which the work of the Congress had taken and the
personal conflicts taking place, they had decided to withdraw.
The election of the Secretary-General took place without incident
and, thanks to the vigilance of the judicial representative and the
Supervisory Committee, no irregularity occurred, in spite of the
violent outbursts from both sides. The counting of voting papers
went on until the early hours of the next morning and the results
were as follows : A. Dimitratos, 750 votes ; F. Makris, 579 votes ;
A. Strouzas, 38 votes ; voting papers adjudged spoilt, 68. These
results showed clearly that the party of the outgoing Committee,
25

378

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

who had not proposed a candidate for the office of Secretary-General,
had voted for Mr. Dimitratos, thus giving him the above number
of votes.
In accordance with Article 29 of the rules of the Confederation,
candidates for the office of Secretary-General and members of executive bodies must be elected by an absolute maj ority of the members
of the Congress ; therefore, the number of Congress members being
1,569, 786 votes were necessary. As no candidate received this
number of votes, the election of the Secretary-General and of the
members of the executive bodies was bound to lead to a deadlock
owing to the uncompromising attitude of the various groups. Thus
the principal object of holding the Congress, the appointment of the
executive bodies, would not be achieved.
In view of this deadlock and of the risk of leaving the Confederation without regular administration, the Government, realising the
imperative need of settling the question, decided the following
morning, in agreement with the competent parliamentary committee, to issue a Legislative Decree providing that the system of
proportional representation, as defined in Act No. 986/1945, should
thenceforward apply in trade union elections if, in the freely expressed
opinion of the judicial representative supervising the voting, it
would be difficult to arrive at a result by following strictly the
rules as to trade union elections (Legislative Decree No. 589, 8 April
1948).
After considering the situation, and in pursuance of the abovementioned Decree, Mr. Papamichalopoulos, judge of the court of
first instance and judicial representative at the Congress, who had
concluded that it would be impossible to elect the executive bodies
of the Confederation in accordance with the rules, decided to apply
the system of proportional representation to the elections of the
Ninth Congress (decision No. 1, 1948).
This decision was announced by the judge himself to the Congress,
which, after an interruption of two days, met to appoint a Control
Committee before proceeding to the election of the executive bodies ;
in accordance with the new law, it was for the new Executive Committee to elect the Secretary-General.
The representatives of the organised working class, and particularly those from the provinces, welcomed with relief the initiative
taken by the Government. Only Mr. Dimitratos raised a strong
protest against this proceeding, but he was opposed by the majority
of the Congress members, who withdrew from the meeting. Appealing
to an article of the Civil Code, inapplicable in the case in question
since the matter is regulated differently in the rules, Mr. Dimitratos
claimed that, having received a majority of the votes cast, he was,
in fact, the elected Secretary-General of the Confederation, and he
added that he intended to exercise his rights and abstain from taking
part in any other election.
During the same morning, the Lascaris group intimated that they
would in future abstain from taking part in the work of the Congress,
since it had departed from its purposes and since the State, by
adopting the measure referred to above, had intervened in trade union
affairs. On the same day a number of delegates returned to the
provinces.
Finally, after discussion of various questions of minor importance
and after the appointment of a Control Committee, the President
gave way to the pressure of events. He observed that members were

APPENDICES

379

becoming tired and that they were coming to the end of their financial
resources, and he accordingly declared the debates closed and
announced that the election of all the executive bodies of the Confederation would take place on the next day, in accordance with
the rules.
The judicial representative announced that he would be at the
court of first instance from 8 to 11 p.m. in order to register nominations of candidates, and he invited the Control Committee to be
present.
Late in the evening, the various groups handed in their nominations, and two complete lists were established for the election of the
Executive Committee and Control Committee (one for the E.R.E.P.E.M.E. group and the other for the outgoing Committee group).
A third list—incomplete—was presented by the unions of employees
in banks and public utility undertakings, also for the election of the
Executive and Control Committees, and Mr. Thiopoulos submitted
his own candidature for the Executive Committee. The representatives of the Confederation in the Supervisory Committee protested
against the nomination of Mr. Theocharides and declined to sit on
the Committee, where they were replaced by other observers from
the same group.
In spite of its decision regarding the exclusion of Mr. Theocharides from the Congress, the Supervisory Committee did not consult
the judicial representative as to the validity of his candidature, since
the Congress had the right to revise the decision of the Executive Committee accepting his resignation. In point of fact, the
Congress had, in the absence of opposition but with the necessary
quorum, revised that decision, and Mr. Theocharides was from that
moment considered as a member of the Congress.
A copy of the decision of the Congress was inserted in the nominations file.
With a view to making the working of the proportional representation system now being applied for the first time as clear as possible
to candidates and voters, the Supervisory Committee of the Ministry
sent out a circular on the same day, giving an analysis of the regulations, together with complete instructions as to the method of voting
and a list of the executive bodies to be elected in accordance with the
rules, namely : the Executive Committee, 19 members ; the Control
Committee, 9 members ; the General Council, 19 members ; the
National Council, 12 members. Thousands of copies of the circular
were printed and it was distributed to all Congress members in order
to guide them in the exercise of their right to vote.
On the next day, Saturday, 10 April, the fourteenth day of the
Congress, the operations for the appointment of the above-mentioned
bodies of the Confederation began, under the supervision of the
judicial representative and in the presence of the Control Committee,
as before.
The voting papers carrying the names of candidates were printed
during the night. Each member of Congress, present in person,
signed the register opposite his name and his number and, after
the stamping of his card, received a copy of each voting paper and an
envelope which he was to seal in a polling booth. This envelope was
then placed in the urn in the presence of the judge, who then placed
his signature on the elector's card.
It should be stated that the three elections, each of which occupied
a whole day, were carried out under normal and straightforward

380

LABOUR PROBLEMS IN GREECE

conditions, on the basis of the list of Congress members and the
delegates' cards, delegates being obligad to present themselves in
person. There were no incidents, and all the members showed
complete confidence in the judicial representative and in the Control
Committee, who exercised strict control. A few insignificant differences were immediately settled after intervention by the Control
Committee, and there was no case of double voting, falsification or
irregularity.
The counting of the votes began on the same evening. The
number of voters was 1,224, and votes were cast as follows :
E.R.E.P.-E.M.E
Outgoing Committee
Independent unions
Single candidate
Spoilt papers

. . . .
. . . .

.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.

577
545
39
43
20

In accordance with Act No. 986/1946, now again in force, the
distribution of seats is based on the electoral quotient, that is, the
ratio of the number of valid voting papers to the number of seats to
be filled. In the second ballot, the seats not allocated are divided
among the lists which have already obtained at least one seat and
which have a balance of votes higher than or equal to one third of
the quotient. In the third ballot, the seats still to be allocated revert
to those lists which have obtained the greatest number of votes. On
this basis, the seats were distributed as follows :
/
Executive Committee I electoral quotient :

1,225

E.R.E.P.-E.M.E
Outgoing Committee
Mr. Thiopoulos
Total
(
Control Committee I electoral quotient :

1,225 \
-'
)

E.R.E.P.-E.M.E
Outgoing Committee
Total

(

electoral quotient :

5
£
9
1 00^

- ~ -

E.R.E.P.-E.M.E
Outgoing Committee
Total
National Council (electoral quotient :
E.R.E.P.-E.M.E
Outgoing Committee
Total

5
£
9
1,225
12
6
6
12

381

APPENDICES

Under the rules of the Confederation the National Council also
comprises certain non-elected members, including :
(1) the presidents and secretaries-general of local federations
(workers' centres or officers of local federations) ;
(2) secretaries (or substitutes) of trade secretariats ;
(3) members of the General Council ;
(4) members of the Executive Committee and of the Control
Committee.
Counting continued during the next two days. Results were
announced according to the number of votes obtained by each candidate on the various lists. The minutes of the election proceedings
having been drawn up and duly signed, the work of the Congress was
brought to a close on Monday, 12 April, the sixteenth day after the
opening, and the provincial delegates returned to their homes.
These were the circumstances in which the Congress took place,
a Congress which aroused the greatest interest on the part of the Greek
and foreign press and radio and which was regarded as of great
national and international importance.
It is not for us, the members of the Supervisory Committee, who
were embarrassed witnesses of the agitation and conflict which
developed in the midst of the Congress, to comment on its more
general aspects.
There can be no doubt that the Congress was successful in so far
as its preparation and organisation were concerned, and in so far as
it represented the great majority of workers throughout the country ;
but there can be as little doubt that the hopes placed in it as a collective, deliberative body were not realised.
Certain Democratic and Left Socialist views were not unrepresented at the Congress, and some delegates, already known for
their opinions, declared their support of these views.
Athens, 20 April 1948.
The Supervisory Committee :
(Signed)

M. PAPALEKAS,

Secretary-General of the
Ministry of Labour.

K.

CHRYSANTHOPOULOS )

S.

KLADAS

J ? 1 ^ t o r s in the

_,.

.

.

,v

K. MALATESTAS

i Mimstry of Labour.