The bill from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security on “Fair Work for All: Legislative Simplification – Worker Support – Protection in Practice – Pension Regulations” was passed by majority vote with the positive vote of New Democracy by the Social Affairs Committee. In contrast, all opposition parties voted against it, demanding its withdrawal.
The Minister of Labor and Social Security, Niki Kerameus, at the beginning of the session, informed the Committee that “in recent days, according to ERGANI data, a historic record has been recorded in our country for new jobs. Specifically, in the eight months of 2025, we had 317,000 new jobs. This is the best eight-month period in the country’s history in the balance of hirings-departures”.
Ministry of Labor: Bill passed, Kerameus cites historic record with 317,000 new positions
She also informed the Committee that yesterday a “very fruitful meeting with the six national partners on the issue of Collective Labor Agreements and strengthening the institutional framework” took place at the ministry, saying that “we are in the final round of consultations” and noted that “the timeline, as also emerges from the recent legislation, is that proposals from social partners must be submitted by the end of October and a roadmap must be concluded by the end of December”, as committed.
Within the framework of this ongoing consultation, the minister reiterated her proposal-invitation to the parties to submit proposals for strengthening the institutional framework of collective bargaining, noting: “I still have not received any proposal from the parties”. Regarding yesterday’s meeting with social partners, she said that present were GSEE president Yannis Panagopoulos, SEV president Spyros Theodoropoulos, GSEVEE president George Kavathas, ESEE president Stavros Kafounis, SETE president Yannis Paraschis and SVE vice-president Ioannis Stavrou.
Ms. Kerameus had a confrontation with opposition parties regarding critical announcements issued by PASOK and New Left about summoning the director of the Independent Labor Inspection Authority, George Tzilivakis, to a Committee hearing, while there exists -as they argued- the Council of State decision ruling that his appointment is void.
The minister clarified that the Council of State decision has still “not even been issued in clean copy and has not been served to the ministry, what we have is only a summary of it”. According to her, the decision concerns the Law establishing the Independent Authority, since Labor Inspection was not an Independent Authority and the method of selecting its director. What the decision summary says is that “legitimately exists and evaluates the Selection Committee the candidates, that legitimately conducts interviews, that the selection procedures are within legislative authorization, that correctly the 1,000 points are provided for the interview out of the total 3,750 points that a candidate can receive. And what is pointed out is that more specific criteria need to be determined for interview evaluation, which should be mentioned in the ministerial decision”. “According to always the decision summary, what the Council of State asks is for the then ministerial decision to be modified and interview evaluation criteria to be set. Therefore, since this decision summary exists, we have provided and bring in the present draft law a provision by which the replacement of the director of the Independent Authority is provided, so that there will be no gap of even one day when this decision is served to us”, she added.
Ms. Kerameus wondered how it would be possible “from the moment that the Council of State decision has still not been issued and it has not been served to the ministry, what exactly is it that you are asking me because of a decision that does not yet exist as far as the Ministry of Labor is concerned, for me to dismiss a head of an Independent Authority? To forbid him from coming to the Greek Parliament? And would this be in favor of institutions and rules of law?”
The PASOK-KINAL rapporteur, Pavlos Christidis, countered the minister that from today’s intervention there is no longer any doubt that she knew about the Council of State decision that annuls the appointment of the Independent Authority director, Mr. George Tzilivakis, and that’s why she brings Article 56 in the bill for the method of replacing the director. “A person who is dismissed, by Council of State decision, cannot inform Parliament about how we are proceeding in addressing issues concerning Labor Inspection and consequently workers throughout the country”, he emphasized. Mr. Christidis pointed out that the minister “instead of apologizing for meritocracy, excellence and the way the government conducts selection interviews by over-scoring, asks for an explanation from PASOK”.
The PASOK-KINAL rapporteur emphasized “that Mr. Tzilivakis’s appointment is an illegal appointment and this person was called by the New Democracy majority to come here and talk to us about Labor Inspection results and you even lecture us”. The SYRIZA-PS special speaker, George Gavrilos mentioned that SYRIZA has submitted a question about the head of the Independent Labor Inspection Authority since yesterday. “Institutionally and politically, the ILSA director, from the first moment, functions as a government appointee and what happens with ILSA is that when it serves the government it highlights it as an Independent Authority and whenever it wants it presents whatever work this Authority has as its own governmental success in the field of safety and health at work”.
The issue of the “dismissed” Mr. Tzilivakis is institutional and provocative, according to Mr. Gavrilos, as it constitutes “a provocation for the Ministry of Labor to bring him to the Committee and with his two interventions to function as a supporter of government policy supporting the bill”. “You are exposed for your institutional impropriety in calling him to the stakeholder hearing and you cannot wag your finger at us…”, Mr. Gavrilos concluded, addressing Ms. Kerameus.
The KKE special speaker, Christos Katsotis, noted in high tones about the ILSA director issue in the Committee that with what the minister said “she did not answer the essence of the issue, which is whether we have the decision or the summary”, but what emerges is “the government’s fiasco that appointed as ILSA director someone who did not meet the criteria during the interview”. Mr. Tzilivakis’s appointment, according to the MP, “is void and that’s why you bring Article 57 in the bill to correct the situation and proceed with the operation of the Independent Labor Inspection Authority. We were opposed from the beginning to ILSA’s institutionalization because its purpose was to further untie employers’ hands and transfer governmental responsibilities for compliance with labor legislation to some supposedly neutral technocrats, who as emerged here regarding the ILSA director’s appointment, are not neutral but governmental”.
Regarding yesterday’s meeting of the minister with social partners on the collective agreements framework, Mr. Katsotis emphasized that “this is exactly what we say and point out is the problem of the working class, that you have as interlocutors government unionism” and attacked GSEE president Yannis Panagopoulos, who, as he said “is in the mockery of the working class, which has surpassed him anyway, because he backs the government to pass all this anti-worker policy”. Regarding the balance of dismissals and hirings and new jobs, he asked the minister to say “how many were the dismissals in the 8-month period, how many were the hirings of stable full employment”.
The New Left special speaker, Theano Fotiou, regarding the announcement issued about the ILSA director, emphasized that “we, as New Left, did our duty to public opinion. We did not mention anything to offend Mr. Tzilivakis -although we could- but neither against the government and the minister it concerns. However, what we point out in our announcement is that 17 bodies cannot be invited to hearings of which non-employer ones were only four. And this is done by the New Democracy majority with government consent”.
Regarding ILSA, the MP noted that “we disagreed from the beginning that it became an Independent Authority and said that Labor Inspection should be in the Ministry of Labor. We expected that all these things that happened with over-scoring for the head’s selection would subsequently occur”. “In any case, the minister cannot have the elephant in front of her and while she sees it… pretend she doesn’t know the Council of State decision”, she added.
Regarding Article 57 of the draft law on director replacement, Ms. Fotiou argued this “is even more shameful as it stipulates that the vice-president -who will perform director duties- is a person who has never been judged”. Regarding the Independent Authority president’s remuneration, she emphasized that “he was hired at 55,572 euros annually, remuneration at the level of a ministry general secretary, then you increased his remuneration to the level of the Supreme Court president and he gave himself a bonus at the end of the year of another 45,000 euros (28/4/2023)”.
Regarding the dialogue on collective agreements, the New Left MP pointed out that she has raised the issue of the European Directive that stipulates “how you should comply immediately and reach at least 80%, collective agreements” emphasizing that “we don’t have collective agreements because we don’t have collective bargaining due to OMED’s abolition”. “Despite whatever you say, we will not have collective labor agreements no matter how much you call partners to discussions as long as OMED does not exist”, she mentioned.
Regarding Article 57 of the bill, Ms. Kerameus noted that what it institutionalizes is how the temporary replacement of the ILSA director will occur in case of dismissal and what it provides is the most senior person of the Authority, whoever that may be, until the procedure begins and the new director is selected. The minister rejected accusations about a director being “appointed or government supporter”, emphasizing that “it is understandable for some parties to be allergic to Independent Authorities, however the ILSA director’s appointment goes through the Parliamentary Committee on Institutions and Transparency for opinion formulation”. “With your logic, you’re calling me to issue a dismissal decision for the ILSA director, without the Council of State decision existing, so such a dismissal decision would be clearly legally illegal”, she added.
The session continues with discussion on the bill’s articles in the Committee.
Source: ANA-MPA
