European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Article 6 of Law 4554/2018, paragraph 3 and 4; Article 17 of Law 4472/2017; Article1 of Law 1387/1983; 74, paragraph 1 of Law 3863/2010
Under Greek law (Law 3863/2010), dismissals are considered to be collective when they concern:
Under the previous legislative framework (Law 1387/1983), the requirement for dismissals to be classified as collective was wider. In particular, it provided that:
There were thus more opportunities for employees to be covered by the favourable institutional framework that protected against collective dismissals.
Law 3863/2010, which narrowed the definition of collective dismissals, is part of a series of laws implementing commitments made by the Greek government to its creditors with the signing of successive Memorandums of Understanding in the framework of Greece’s accession to the financial stability mechanism to bring about recovery from the economic crisis. From the outset, the revision of the broader legislative framework regarding collective dismissals has been a major and pressing issue in negotiations involving the Greek government and further developments are expected regarding this issue in the near future.
During the negotiations between the Greek government and the representatives of the European Commission, the IMF and the ECB in 2017, the IMF called for dismissals to be considered collective when they concern more than 8-10% (instead of 5%) of the staff in an undertaking or establishment with more than 150 employees. However, the Greek government succeeded in maintaining the threshold at 5%.
Eurofound (2015), Greece: Definition of collective dismissal, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/definition-of-collective-dismissal/greece
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