A Tripartite Agreement was reached in March 2011 concerning growth and employment measures and the revision of some aspects of the labour code in relation to compensation in the case of redundancies and dismissals, as well as to collective agreements and lay off procedures. However, these labour law changes have not been implemented yet and further reforms of the labour code are foreseen for 2012 as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding. A new social dialogue process was initiated envisaging a broad scope tripartite agreement (on growth, competiveness and employment), in which the revision of the labour code was also up for discussion. This was a lengthy consultation process which was interrupted after the government made its announcement about increased working hours. Negotiations were resumed after the November general strike and a new comprehensive tripartite agreement on the subjects of Growth, Competitiveness and Employment was due to be signed in January 2012. The agreement also included a revision of the Labour Code. The UGT reported that it was the only trade union confederation with seat in the Permanent Commission for Social Partnership to sign the Agreement and did so in order to avoid the introduction of more punitive measures for workers, which are envisaged in the Troika Memorandum.
The crisis had a strong impact on collective bargaining. The number of signed collective agreements decreased from 230 in2010 to 170 in 2011, and fewer workers (less than 170,000) were covered by the agreements.