The Road to Recovery : A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Rights of Workers in Greece, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom and their Insolvency Legal Systems

The financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis that followed it have been attributed to a number of causes. Whether these are economic, social, cultural or legal, they are all by and large also political. The aim of this paper is not to delve into the myriad of heated political arguments that continue to dominate the scene, but to assess the impact of the financial crisis on workers’ rights in Greece, Portugal, France and the United Kingdom and to examine its impact on their corporate rescue regimes with a view to understanding what the legislative and social changes may mean for the future of these individual nations, their people and businesses, and perhaps for the EU and Eurozone as a whole. In light of the crisis, the rights of the workforce have been severely compromised in order to alleviate pressures on troubled companies and to afford them a greater potential for recovery. In response to the crisis, all four jurisdictions have introduced reforms to their labor codes and corporate rescue mechanisms in order to minimize the catastrophic impact on their economies and societies.As a project, this is only the beginning. This paper will only offer a snap shot of those important changes that have occurred since the crisis began, the effects as understood at the current level of research, and an initial assessment as to whether or not the reforms of the pre-insolvency regimes in particular have operated as an effective embankment for the protection of social and economic welfare, the former of these being already significantly reduced throughout the EU. While France and the UK have had their fair share of economic hardships, Greece and Portugal were forced to go to the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and the European Central Bank3 for assistance in order to avoid defaulting on sovereign loans, an outcome that would have had a severe effect on financial markets throughout the EU. This assistance was granted in exchange for their agreement to the terms of Memoranda of Understanding4 that set out measures to be taken to improve their economic viability and market flexibility. The austerity measures implemented in response to the MoUs have caused great hardship and social turmoil in both Greece and Portugal