With a central message “equality at work is not a privilege nor a provision of the state or employers, but a fundamental right”, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Secretariat of Equality and Individual-Social Rights of GSEE, through this year’s video-message, make image and sound of the cry and anguish of women in their daily struggle for an equal and better future.

As the Confederation states, “it dedicates the video to the women who believed in their power, trusted the unions and together we fought the battle against employers – state or private – for work with dignity and equality. Our goal is for no one to be left behind, for no one to feel alone, we are standing by.”

In its announcement, the GSEE lists the following list of positions and claims, which reflects the common long-term course:

  1. Discrimination against women, harassment and sexual harassment at work are invisible. The unions don’t. Not us. Come in time to tell us your complaint so that we or you can go to the Labor Inspectorate. Lean on the power of your union, your Federation, the Labor Center of your area.
  2. We competently and dynamically represent workers in labor and insurance disputes.
  3. We are fighting for the restoration of all the provisions and the universal commitment of the National General Collective Labor Agreement, which for decades has been a guide for the promotion of equality, equal pay for work under equal conditions and salary transparency. We are fighting for the restoration of all Collective Labor Agreements with full recognition of rights from seniority, professional qualification, marital status, health and our safety from occupational hazards and occupational diseases. We join forces with European and international trade unions to promote substantive equality for women at work and close the pay gap.
  4. Natural, adopted or fostered, disabled or not, our children are our life. Notify us of discrimination due to these reasons. We fight to protect our family life without discrimination and demand public support structures across the country accessible to all.
  5. They ask us, before we start work, if we intend to get married or not, to have children or not. They require us to work as if we don’t have children and, at the same time, raise children as if we don’t work. Our personal life is our own. We are informed free of charge by the GSEE, the Federations and the Labor Centers, about our rights. Together we fearlessly claim our professional value without discrimination.
  6. We learn about our rights and claim together our equal facility in the care of our sick relatives. We require public support structures across the country, accessible to all.
  7. We are equal and equal regardless of race, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion. Unions can bring to light multiple discriminations. We break the silence. We use the GSEE guide https://gsee.gr/deltia-typou/25-noemvri-pagkosmia-imera-gia-tin-eksaleipsi-tis-vias-kata-ton-gynaikon/ to support victims of discrimination, violence and of harassment at work, from the unions, the Federations, the Labor Centers.
  8. We want work that respects our personality. The trade unions say no to moral harassment, no to work bullying and the exhaustion of the dignity and health of workers.
  9. We want timely and effective protection of women from inequality and discrimination, wherever and if they work, without obstacles to their access to the Authorities, such as the language of recording the complaint, the separate examination of complaints of harassment/violence from those of violation of labor rights , the non-consideration of the health and safety dimension.
  10. We demand institutional information and participation of the GSEE for the required social control, transparency and accountability in the formulation of policies for equality, their implementation and the controls of the Labor Inspectorate. In the Greece of 2024, the gender and gender equality policy cannot be a shadow object divided into individual ministries, but become autonomous and finally acquire the required horizontal coordinating role in all policies”.

At the same time, the Confederation points out that there is the possibility of free information about citizens’ rights from the information structures of the GSEE and citizens can contact the Secretariat for Equality and Individual-Social Rights ([email protected]), the Information Center for Workers and the Unemployed of GSEE (www.kepea.gr) and to the Network of Information & Counseling Services for Employees and the Unemployed of the Labor Institute of GSEE (https://www.inegsee.gr/diktio-ipiresion-pliroforisis-simvouleftikis-ergazomenon-anergon/)