Rethinking Greek Capitalism through the Lens of Industrial Relations Reform: A View until the 2015 Referendum

This paper explores changes in Industrial Relations (IR) regulation and practice in a context of institutional crisis and change. The existing literature on industrial relations in Greece highlights a long process of deregulation that has been accelerated since the onset of the economic crisis, and the inherent segmentation of the Greek system between regulated players and largely unregulated informal and SME players. Radical neo-liberal reforms have weakened the position of those most reliant on traditional regulatory arrangements: larger formal sector employers and their workers, making the basis of Greek competitiveness more fragile. At the same time, the system cannot be dismissed as simply dysfunctional: key elite interests have done well from weak and uneven institutional coverage and have much to gain by reduced government capabilities. At the time of writing, the Greek IR system is being impelled in one direction by external pressures and elite interests, and another by a grassroots counter-movement; whilst the solutions to the Greek condition may be political, the realm of political action is circumscribed by long historical legacies.