Institutional Change in Greek Industrial Relations in an Era of Fiscal Crisis

<p>The main aim of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate on the&nbsp;facets of the Greek crisis via an analysis of the changes in the institutional&nbsp;framework of the labour market that are introduced as a result of the EU/IMF&nbsp;mechanism for financial support. The paper tries to make sense of the&nbsp;immense transformations in the Greek industrial relations system and to&nbsp;evaluate the direction of change, using insights from the varieties of&nbsp;capitalism literature. In this strand of literature it is well established that the&nbsp;comparative institutional advantage and high economic performance of a&nbsp;country depends on its overall institutional arrangement and the fit between&nbsp;different institutions (including the industrial relations sphere). Thus, it is&nbsp;important to examine the current injection of liberal market elements in the Greek industrial relations realm vis-à-vis the wider institutional context. This&nbsp;will allow us to gauge the suitability and chances for the implementation of&nbsp;IMF’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ policies.</p>