new competencies and
innovations in logistics

The National Statistical Service of Greece (NSSG), a General Secretariat of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, presents certain general statistical data which illustrate the current demographic, social and economic situation of Greece. The general publications of the NSSG are the Statistical Yearbook of Greece, the Concise Statistical Yearbook of Greece and the Monthly Statistical Bulletin. Special thematic issues are also published.http://www.statistics.gr

In Greece, the NSSG is only able to collect job data according to the one-digit groups of individual occupations of the ISCO 88. This provides a general view of the different groups of occupations. However, since the data is presented in an aggregated way, then it is not possible to quantify the number of logistics jobs, as shown in the table below.

Table 1. Persons aged over 15 in employment (in thousands) by one-digit groups of individual occupations: 1998-2003 by quarter
	ISCO-88	1998				2001
		1st quarter	1st quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter	2nd quarter	3rd quarter	4th quarter
	Total	3 919,2	3 899,3	3 917,5	3925,5	3863,2	3967,2	3981,1	3942,5
	Legislators, senior officials and managers	429,0	377,3	373,4	367,1	370,9	441,3	440,8	425,4
	Professionals	478,9	483,2	485,9	493,7	493,3	487,7	469,9	485,2
	Technicians and associate professionals	262,2	259,5	258,4	257,8	257,3	278,3	293,2	294,2
	Clerks	399,1	455,8	463,5	458,2	450,9	377,8	378,5	375,0
	Service workers and shop and market sales workers	459,6	504,0	510,7	525,0	500,6	477,7	492,1	475,4
	Skilled agricultural and fishery workers	698,1	623,9	617,7	612,1	594,0	684,1	683,4	678,9
	Craft and related trade workers	629,0	634,7	631,0	634,8	633,9	626,4	626,8	617,1
	Plant and machine operators and assemblers	294,4	293,5	290,4	287,6	281,9	315,8	305,4	307,4
	Elementary occupations	226,6	231,3	249,8	250,6	242,3	233,8	250	244,6
	Other unclassified persons	42,3					44,3	41,1	39,3
			36,1	36,7	38,7	38,2
Source: National Statistical Service of Greece (NSSG) ; Labour Force Survey Sectorial approaches.

In the publication prepared by the ESYE, "Greece in figures 2003", a table concerning employment and unemployment from 1998 to 2002 (in thousands of people) provides data across various economic sectors (http://www.esye.gr/).

The Greek National Institute for Statistics (ESYE) works on data according to the NACE (Rev 1) classification. Here is a table in which workers are classified according to their status and according to economic sectors for 2003.

Table 2. Workers aged 15 and over (in thousands) by one-digit categories of economic activities and occupational status in 2003
NACE REV.1	1st quarter					2nd quarter
TOTAL	3 964,0	301,1	998,0	2 332,4	332,6	4 014,5	300,0	1 002,6	2 382,9	329,0
Agriculture, livestock breeding, hunting and forestry	637,5	40,9	385,8	27,2	183,5	638,2	39,0	388,9	28,2	182,1
Fishing	15,5	1,2	9,8	2,8	1,6	15,6	0,9	10,5	2,9	1,3
Mining and quarrying	14,7	0,7	0,2	13,9	0,0	12,1	0,5	0,2	11,4	0,0
Manufacturing	517,1	47,6	71,8	370,4	27,3	514,0	46,1	69,6	371,3	27,1
Electricity, gas, steam and water supply	33,2	0,1	0,1	33,0	0,0	37,5	0,2	0,1	37,2	0,1
Construction	311,6	37,1	58,1	206,6	9,8	317,8	37,3	59,8	212,0	8,6
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods	685,3	71,9	219,1	325,9	68,3	682,5	72,0	220,2	324,4	65,9
Hotels and restaurants	238,1	34,0	53,8	122,0	28,3	283,5	41,6	54,0	156,7	31,1
Transport, storage and communication	248,7	9,1	51,6	183,7	4,3	251,5	8,0	50,4	189,2	3,8
Financial brokers	100,4	2,4	6,8	91,1	0,2	102,0	2,5	7,4	91,8	0,3
Real estate, renting and business activities	228,9	27,0	76,0	121,4	4,5	222,8	22,8	73,6	123,2	3,2
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security	292,4	0,6	0,7	291,0	0,0	297,4	0,6	1,0	295,8	0,0
Education	253,4	7,6	10,6	234,2	1,0	258,7	6,9	12,1	238,6	1,1
work	174,3	4,8	21,3	147,8	0,4	172,0	4,2	21,7	145,6	0,4
Other community, social and personal service activities	156,8	15,9	29,2	108,2	3,6	155,3	17,1	29,4	104,7	4,0
Private households with employed persons	54,6	0,0	3,1	51,5	0,0	53,4	0,3	3,5	49,6	0,0
Extra-territorial organizations and bodies	1,7	0,0	0,0	1,7	0,0	0,3	0,0	0,0	0,3	0,0
Source: NSSG; Labour Force Survey; ESYE.

Since 1998, the data has been harmonized according to Eurostat's definition and refer to the second quarter of each year.
However, this data does not enable us to determine the number of jobs identified per sector of economic activity; they simply group the workers according to their status per sector (self-employed, salaried worker.).

The data which refers to "transport, storage and communication", for the period 1998 to 2001, shows a slight increase in employment and a decrease from 2002, when the figures are more comparable to those of 1998 (table 2). This can be considered to be a stable trend because, at the general level, employment is decreasing.

Table 3. Employment and unemployment from 1998 to 2002 (thousands of people)

Source: Greece in figures 2003; ESYE

There is a large amount of port activities in Greece and the following table shows that Greeks use sea transport as the most important means of transport. Port activities increased significantly between 1971 and 2001, particularly those related to goods transport. There is a clear difference in the figures between 1971 and 1981 and since that date, goods transport by sea has continued to increase.

Table 4. Sea transport

From a general point of view, we must remember that the introduction of new organisational structures in Greece is a fairly recent phenomenon.

The data provided thus far by the existing sources of statistics have not enabled us to identify logistics jobs within the various sectors of professional activity.

In recent years, Greece has made significant progress in the domain of training and vocational training and this has led to the creation of new institutions, innovative programs, participation of social partners, the harmonization of certification methods with European norms, modernization of curriculum. A lot of progress still needs to be made to harmonize Greek programs with European programs.

The current main issues in Greece and the objectives concerning employment and initial and life-long learning reflect the general situation across Europe: the need to promote education policies in order to develop human resources, to reinforce the employability of young people and to fight against social exclusion.

Deficiencies and duplications of effort which were observed in the system of vocational training during the first plan of national action for employment are, for the most part, the result of a lack of coordination between the different actors and the inefficiency of its structures. However, these problems should now be resolved through the creation of a tripartite joint coordinating body: "the National Body Linking Vocational Training and Employment" (ESSEEKA). This body will be made up of representatives of the public authorities, employers and workers.

Job descriptions for the purpose of collective bargaining / social dialogue
The current Greek regulations on industrial relations and collective agreements at the company level were established in the 1980s. In reality, the powers and responsibilities of the works councils are normally carried out by the trade union at a company level. The unions use these regulations to pursue their rights and entitlements which, in the past, had only been described in general terms.

The law n° 2639/1998 « Europe of the workers' representatives and of their economic entitlements », European Commission; labour relations and industrial changes;
Employment and social affairs, 2001, provided for the possibility, in article 4, of concluding "local employment pacts" (TSA-Topika Symphona Apascholisis). These are collective agreements of a special type which can be concluded between employers, trade unions, public bodies, chambers of commerce and local authorities in areas of economic decline or of high unemployment. These agreements can include:

• Measures designed to stabilize or to develop employment
• Training measures which are linked to the local production system
• Measures concerning the creation of jobs through the provision of public and community funds in small and medium-sized companies and investment sectors
• The development of economic, social or cultural activities for which specific conditions of pay and employment can be set.

Stavros Gavroglou, Head of Department for Labour Market Studies at the National Observatory of Employment (EPA) explained that there are no job descriptions in any sectors of activity.

I. Sakellis, Director of the Institute of Social Policy at the National Centre for Social Research (EKKE) explained that he is not aware of any organization in Greece providing such information.

The Ministry of Education (YPETH) and the Labour Ministry (YPEKA) are in charge of the provision of career advice and guidance.

• The Ministry of Education (http://www.ypepth.gr) has provided, at secondary school level (gymnasia), some 200 GRASEP "Offices for School career advice"(Grafio Sholikou Epangelmatikou Prosanatolismou) which were set up to provide guidance, information and advice to school pupils.
  Moreover, at the prefectoral level, there are 68 KESYP "Centres for Vocational Advice and Guidance" (Kentra Symvouleftikis ke Epangelmatikou Prosanatolismou) which are for young people under 26 years old.
  For young people and students, there are other organizations which provide information on jobs such as the GGNG (General Secretariat for Youth), the career services in universities and in technical institutes.
• For the Labour Ministry (http://www.ypakp.gr), the main institution is the OAED (the Greek manpower employment organization). The task of the Directorate of Employment of the OAED is to provide the unemployed population with information about training and employment opportunities available on the labour market, as well as taking active measures to create new jobs.
  The web site of the OAED (http://www.oaed.gr) provides information about the operation of the Centres for Promotion to Employment and the current programs. Information concerning present and future needs on the labour market is also provided by the OAED, from the body known as the EPA (National Observatory on Employment).

The KPA "Centres for the promotion of employment" (Kentra Proothisis tis Apasholisis) and the Career advice centres (Kentra Epangelmatikou Prosanatolismou) are for apprentices, the employed and unemployed people. The KPA also helps job-seekers to find a job.

The KEPEA "Information Centre for workers and the unemployed" (http://www.kepea.gr) is a new service organized by the Greek Workers' Confederation (GSEE) and aims to provide timely and reliable information to Greek workers, immigrants, the unemployed and companies. It operates as an employment agency in cooperation with the OAED. Some other services provide information for unemployed people and companies, such as the EVEA (Information Office for the unemployed and companies), the KAE (Centre for employment and companies). Similar bodies also operate at the municipal level (EETAA).

No logistics jobs descriptions were found for employment purposes.

The CEDEFOP carried out a survey on the vocational training system in Greece called "The vocational training and education system in Greece, a brief description" (Vassileia Vretakou-Panagiotis Rousseas Panorama series 57- European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, 2003). This survey shows that the system of certification for vocational education presents weaknesses: it is based on the length of study and not on the trainee's knowledge and skills. The system of certification is not standardized at the national level on the basis of systems of reference for vocational qualifications and the social partners are not involved.

The EKEP (Ethniko Kentro Epangelmatikou Prosanatolismou), http://www.ekep.gr, is the executive body of the public authorities. It is under the supervision of the Labour Ministry and the Ministry of Education and aims to ensure coherency, firstly between the contents and pathways of education and training and, secondly, labour market requirements and the requirements of employers and workers.

The Greek representative within the ELA (European Logistics Association) published an article in May 2003 that focuses on the situation in Greek companies today, in terms of job titles and the corresponding responsibilities, based on the "Occupational Profiles" guidelines for identifying jobs in Logistics.

Thus, the most common job title present in Greece is the Logistics Manager, whose main responsibility is the overall supervision of distribution (warehousing and transportation). Logistics Controller and Logistics IT specialist are not common job titles in the Greek business environment.

Purchasing Manager is present in Greek companies He is responsible for the process of goods purchasing, the monitoring of suppliers, and the availability of stock, by controlling the stock/inventory volumes according to demand (forecasting) and defining the appropriate order quantities. Purchasing officer is not a common job title.

Production Planner and Controller is present in Greek industrial companies
The corresponding responsibilities include production planning and control and stock/inventory control issues. Thus, the stock/inventory controller job title is not encountered in Greece.

Distribution Manager, Planner and Fleet manager are covered, in most cases, by the title of Logistics Manager. Therefore there are no such job titles used in Greece. All titles related to shipping are to be found, as seen in a recent survey undertaken in the biggest port in Greece, the Port of Piraeus.

As far as educational issues are concerned, there are already two Masters courses in "Logistics Management" established in Public Universities (Athens University of Economic Business and the University of Piraeus) and there are more than 3 Masters courses organized by private Institutions together with mainly English universities

Furthermore, an increasing number of seminars are being organized by private companies so as to raise the awareness of logistics issues within the Greek business environment, both from a tactical managerial and an operational level point of view.

We interviewed two Greek companies which gave us their jobs descriptions.

5.1 Hays Logistics Hellas (see Annex 1)
The description of the identified logistics job refers to the Logistics engineer, and it is defined in terms of:

• Tasks and activities
• Knowledge
• Levels of responsibility
• Means
• Reporting

5.2 Omega Transport-Logistics (see Annex 2)
Established in 1970, OMEGA has been the pioneer of organized transport in Greece. Today, OMEGA is the leading private sector Transport and Logistics Company and can provide its customers with high quality Overland, Overseas and Logistics services. Headquartered in Athens, OMEGA has a branch in Thessaloniki and at Spata.

The identified logistics jobs are:

• Handler
• Picker
• Forklift driver
• Logistics operation planner
• Logistics analyst
• Logistics controller

These jobs are defined in terms of:

• Mission
• Tasks and activities
• Skills
• Awareness and Behaviour
• Qualifications
• Evaluation criteria
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KPMG consulting carried out a survey called "Supply Chain Benchmarking Survey for Companies operating in Greece, EEA 2001-2002 Report" on Supply Chain Benchmarking for companies operating in Greece (http://www.kpmg.gr/). The survey started in 2001 and ended in 2002. A total of 49 companies participated in the survey, from various sectors/industries of the Greek market: A total of 28% of participants operate in the industrial and commercial sector; 27% operate in the commercial sector only; 13% operate in the industrial sector only and 26% operate in the service sector. The majority of participants (33%) are from the consumer goods industry, 13% from transportation & logistics, 11% from food and agriculture and another 9% are from industrial products industry. This is the first survey of its kind to focus on the Greek market.

Figure 1. Supply chain activities by department

Source: KPMG, Supply Chain Benchmarking Survey for Companies operating in Greece, EEA 2001-2002 Report. p11

All the supply chain activities are present in the Logistics Department of all the participants. It is also clear that all the supply chain activities are much more equally distributed in the Logistics Department than in the other departments. The most usual routine jobs executed by the Logistics Department seem to be:

• Customer order fulfilment
• Inventory management
• Warehousing
• Distribution

Figure 2. The Logistics Department reports to:

Source: Supply Chain Benchmarking Survey for Companies operating in Greece, EEA 2001-2002 Report. p12.

In more than 80% of the participants the Logistics Department reports to either the CEO, or the General Manager, or a first line Manager. Placing the logistics department at this high level of hierarchy in the organizational structure is clear proof evidence of the recognized significance of the supply chain functions . But unfortunately, no jobs definitions were studied.

Logistics in Greece has rapidly grown through a very dynamic process of adjustment to the new and ever-changing corporate environment and technological progress. In Greece, we have to bear in mind that SMEs (small and medium-sized companies) tend to dominate and the fact that the local Public Service environment and policies are often inadequate.

Logistics in Greece has been characterized by rapid growth over recent years. The main features of this growth have been:

• Growing company interest and the search for appropriately trained managers and personnel in logistics
• Growing requirements for company staff to be re-trained so as to be able to implement logistics techniques and modern technology
• Introduction of logistics courses in the Public and Private Universities at graduate and post-graduate levels.