Greece has extended its working hours to six days a week for companies with shifts | Economy

From 1 July, Greek companies can implement a sixth working day and change employees’ schedules to suit production needs. In addition, the new legal framework allows an employee who already has an eight-hour contract to take a second job of up to five days a week to supplement his or her salary. The minimum inter-professional wage is 830 euros and the cost of living is similar to that in Spain. Parliamentary procedures for the reform began in August while much of the country was on holiday, it was quickly approved in September and has now come into force.

The extension of the working week aims to facilitate the production of economic sectors whose work flow is continuous. Until now, companies had to arrange their employees’ schedules with two days of rest; now it can only be one if the salary corresponding to the sixth is 40% better paid. The government’s stated aim is to combat the underground economy and increase employees’ income. In the event that the sixth day falls on a Sunday or a holiday, the employee has the right to an increase of 115% of his daily salary. An additional 25% surcharge applies if the shift is also night. The employee’s rest is 11 hours a day and the weekly rest is 24 hours, i.e. a full day.

This is a labour reform known as the “Georgiadis Law”, introduced last August by then Labour Minister and current Health Minister, Adonis Georgiadis. Georgiadis is one of the most controversial figures on the Greek right. Vice-president of the ruling New Democracy party, he comes from the defunct far-right party LAOS. Before becoming a politician he was known as a talk show host. Telemarketing in which he sold books with revisionist themes, through which he attempted to establish a historical-political continuity between Classical Greece, the Byzantine Empire, and Modern Greece. During the process of labor reform, both the unions and the opposition criticized him for his lack of experience in the labor field. During an intervention in Parliament before the vote, Minister Georgiadis assured that his law “abolishes neither the eight-hour day nor the five-day week.” The government argues that the law makes schedules more flexible to reduce undeclared overtime and thus protects workers.

In the private sector, the companies that can benefit from the new schedule are those that “by nature” have continuous operations, that is, those that work every day of the week, 24 hours a day, with a rotating shift system. But also those that boast an increased workload, have discontinuous operations, five or six days a week. In the public sector, the reform affects officials of municipal and regional entities, employees of public electricity, water, sewage, telecommunications and public transport companies.

The Labour Ministry’s defence is that the six-day work week is an “exception” to cover emergencies that require specialised personnel, so that they can be covered by immediate job offers. Unions, on the other hand, argue that while many European countries are debating a four-day work week, Greece is going against the grain and increasing working hours.

The main union in the private sector, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), fears that after the implementation of the labour reform, workplace accidents will increase even more due to the accumulated fatigue of workers. Last year 179 people died and 287 were seriously injured in workplace accidents in Greece. Unions have denounced that the 2024 count will be even worse, mainly due to a rise in construction accidents.

In addition, the unions denounce that the legislation is confusing both with regard to the remuneration of employees and the working time, which, according to them, increases the room for employer arbitrariness. “It is paradoxical that two different regulatory frameworks have been implemented for the work card – one from 2011 and the other from 2021 – and two others for the sixth day – one from 2010 and the other from 2023 -, without issuing the necessary ministerial decisions. To understand this, the GSEE denounced in a statement.

On the street, the implementation of the reform has been viewed, at first, with skepticism. On Wednesday morning two workers at a mechanical workshop in Mytilene were discussing the impact of the new law. The oldest, Panagiotis, who prefers to be quoted without a last name, sarcastically asked the youngest: “Can you name me a single reform that has worked in this country in the last 15 years?” And the young man replied: “Until the work is inspected, no matter what the law says, we will continue to put in the required hours and they will continue to pay us less.”

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