Dealing with 'unionistic' corporate governance in Greece

While the majority of private Greek corporations move towards an Anglo-Saxon market-orientated model of corporate governance, a number of important organizations still operate under a different model. We call this a “unionistic corporate governance” model and is dominant in almost every state owned enterprise in Greece. It is a distorted expression of the corporatist philosophy that prevailed in the wider Greek public sector according which unionists, managers and politicians ally and assure benefits in expense of the society. However, the implementation of the Economic Adjustment Programme -especially the 2nd one- affected the “unionistic acquis” and established rules that deteriorate the maneuvering leeway for the main actors. As previous attempts to modernize the regulatory and legal framework failed to change the regime, it is imperative to keep a close eye on the outcomes of the recent reforms and impose further measures to the same direction.