Greece

Organization responsible for the statistics

The statistics are collected by the Inspections de Travail of the Ministère du Travail, and compiled and published by the Service national de statistique and the Service de Statistique of the Ministère du Travail.

Objectives and users

Not available.

Coverage

Strikes and lockouts

The statistics cover: Data are recorded and published separately for general strikes and for lockouts.

Sit-ins, go-slows and overtime bans are not included.

Minimum threshold Duration of at least one hour.

Economic activities

Public administration (the staff of ministries) is not covered as it does not come within the field of competence of the Ministère du Travail.

Workers

Workers directly involved and workers indirectly involved. In addition to regular paid employees, including part-time workers, the statistics cover temporary, casual and seasonal workers. Unpaid family workers, workers laid off and workers absent for other reasons (annual leave, sick leave, military service, training, etc.) are not included.

No particular occupational groups are excluded.

Geographic areas

Whole country.

Types of data collected

Concepts and definitions

Strike or stoppage (grève or arrêt de travail)

A work stoppage effected by a group or groups of workers. A strike is a stoppage lasting several days; work stoppage is used when the interruption lasts a few hours only.

Lockout or debarring from work (exclusion du travail)

The closure of the enterprise by the employer for a certain time in retaliation against strike action.

These are working definitions used for statistical purposes.

Methods of measurement

Strikes and lockouts

The basic unit of measurement used to record a strike or lockout may be the case of dispute or the economic unit (establishment). The continuation of a strike or lockout that is interrupted but later resumes, still due to the same case of dispute, is treated as a new strike or lockout.

Economic units involved

The economic unit is the establishment or workplace, defined as the place in which an economic activity is carried out (manufacturing, trade, administration, service, etc.). The number of economic units involved is not counted in the case of a general strike.

Workers involved

The number of workers involved is the average of the number of daily absences during the period of the strike or lockout. Part-time workers are counted as individuals on the same basis as full-time workers.

Duration

The duration is measured in workdays from the date on which the strike or lockout began to the date on which it terminated in the economic unit concerned.

Time not worked

Total time not worked is measured in workhours as the product of the number of workers involved and the duration (number of days the strike or lockout lasts x number of hours per day of strike or lockout). The shorter working hours of part-time workers are not taken into account, nor is overtime.

Classifications

Cause of dispute

Outcome of dispute

Branch of economic activity

The data are classified by branch of economic activity, using the International Standard Industrial Classification (1968). In the case of general strikes, data are included in the total only; there is no classification by branch of economic activity.

Duration

(in workdays)

Reference period and periodicity

The statistics are compiled for periods of a month and a year, and published for periods of a year. They refer to strikes and lockouts beginning during the particular reference period plus those continuing from the previous period.

Analytical measures

None.

Historical background of the series

Not available.

Documentation

Series available

Not available.

Bibliographic references

National Statistical Service of Greece: Statistical Yearbook (annual);

Idem: Labour Statistics (quarterly).

Data published by the ILO

The number of strikes and lockouts, the number of workers involved, the number of days not worked and rates of days not worked, by economic activity.

Confidentiality

Not available.

International standards

Not available.

Methods of data collection

There is no legal obligation to report the occurrence of a strike or lockout. The information is collected from unions, newspapers, etc. and by means of a form which is completed for each enterprise involved by the Labour Inspectorate.