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Labour Market Duality Under the Insider-Outsider Theory, Labour Division, Rent-Seeking, and Clientelism

The Case of a European Union Member Country

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Abstract

This chapter presents the labour market duality and its persistence in Southern European countries. We examine the insider-outsider theory which shows that insiders, workers with permanent contracts and high job security use their insider market power and political influence to underbid the outsiders. Then, we focus on Greece and how its labour market institutions are linked with the context of insider-outsider model which is not a recent phenomenon. Moreover, we describe the introduction of major labour reforms during Greek recession, which eased employment protection legislation (EPL), increased flexibility on working arrangements, decentralized collective bargaining system and reduced labour cost. The chapter concludes by discussing how the deregulation plan of the Greek labour market may provide an exit from the crisis and reducing precarious work.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A number of EU Directives, based on social partner agreements regulated the following part-time work (1997/81/EC), fixed-term work (1999/70/EC), teleworking (2002—framework agreement), temporary and agent workers (proposed in 2002, and finally agreed in 2008/104/EC). Moreover, the working timedirective (updated in 2003/88/EC) also created minimum restrictions on the working hours per week, holidays and night work.

  2. 2.

    http://www.economist.com/node/21542926.

  3. 3.

    Many other scholars agree with the inside-outside dichotomy in Greece’s labour market (Labrianidis and Lyberaki 2001; Iosifidis 2001; Matsaganis 2007; Kouzis 2008; Lyberaki 2009; Tsakloglou and Cholezas 2005; Zambarloukou 2015).

  4. 4.

    For example, doctors, lawyers, notaries, engineers, pharmacists.

  5. 5.

    https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/emcc-eurwork/articles/working-conditions-labour-market-industrial-relations/greece-reducing-the-number-of-public-servants-latest-developments.

  6. 6.

    See more explanation on their analysis in Chapter 7: “Public sector adjustment amidst structural adjustment in Greece: Subordinate, spasmodic and sporadic”. Public Sector Shock: The Impact of Policy Retrenchment in Europe, Edward Elgar by ILO, pp. 265–266.

  7. 7.

    Defined as the ratio of the average wage in the public relative to the private sector.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

    Achilleas Anagnostopoulos

  2. University of Peloponnese, Korinthos, Greece

    Pyrros Papadimitriou

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  1. Achilleas Anagnostopoulos
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  2. Pyrros Papadimitriou
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Correspondence to Achilleas Anagnostopoulos .

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  1. Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Vasileios Vlachos

  2. Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Aristidis Bitzenis

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Anagnostopoulos, A., Papadimitriou, P. (2019). Labour Market Duality Under the Insider-Outsider Theory, Labour Division, Rent-Seeking, and Clientelism. In: Vlachos, V., Bitzenis, A. (eds) European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18103-1_12

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