Greece introduces a six-day working week: who will profit? – DW – 07/01/2024

Whereas it’s in lots of European nations it’s being talked about query about altering to a 4 day week, the Greek authorities are transferring in the wrong way. From 1 July 2024, many staff employed in Greece in business, retail commerce, agriculture and a few companies should work six days per week, if in any respect. their employer will resolve. For the sixth day, they obtain a bonus of 40% of their day by day wages.

This rule doesn’t apply to tourism and the catering sector – the place the five-day working week will turn out to be a factor of the previous in 2023. Greek authorities verify that the six -a new day simplifying administration in firms, decreasing the verification interval for these employed to 6 months and making additional time extra clear.

Many firms make you’re employed longer hours with out compensation.

After fifteen years of economic disaster and three EU bailouts, and the scenario was to introduce austerity, labor relations in Greece ceased to be strictly regulated. Collective wage agreements have been frozen for a number of years; in lots of firms, staff work beneath particular person employment contracts.

Though the 40-hour week nonetheless applies, employers are allowed to request as much as two hours of unpaid additional time per day for a restricted time and supply extra relaxation time in return.

At an indication organized by Greek commerce unions in Athens to protest in opposition to the violation of staff’ rights, Could 1, 2023. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Pictures

In idea, that is finished voluntarily, however many firms pressure folks to work longer hours with none compensation. Compliance with labor legal guidelines in Greece hardly ever managed by authorities whose staffs are more and more small. Efficient investigative our bodies don’t look like a precedence for the conservative authorities of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

On the identical time, in accordance with Emmanouil Savoidakis, head of the labor regulation division on the Athens regulation agency Politis & Companions, the brand new laws ought to assist fill gaps within the expert labor market, combating unfair employment authorized and affords incentives equivalent to free coaching for staff to “promote upskilling. and adapt to altering market calls for.”

The Greeks are the most important workaholics in Europe

Even earlier than the six-day work regulation got here into impact, the Greeks turned the most important workaholics in Europe. Working a mean of 41 hours per week, they’re outperforming residents of different member nations. European Unionwhereas, in accordance with Eurostat knowledge, low center revenue. It’s believed that after dwelling by way of a deep monetary and financial disaster, Greece has returned to regular life – the expansion of the nation’s GDP, in accordance with the calculations of the European Fee revealed in the course of ‘ Could, at 2.2% this 12 months and a pair of.3% subsequent 12 months, which is greater than the common within the euro space. The unemployment fee is predicted to fall from a projected 10.3% in 2024 to 9.7% in 2025.

Jens Bastian Photograph: Jens Bastian

On the identical time, the minimal wage of 830 euros in Greece is the fifteenth highest among the many member states of the European Union, and the buying energy of Athens typically ranked second within the EU. The common month-to-month wage of Greeks is now round 1,250 euros, and Prime Minister Mitsotakis not too long ago introduced that he plans to boost it to 1,500 euros by 2027. However the improve doesn’t compensate for wage cuts earlier and persistently excessive inflation, which compelled many voters to work two jobs to make ends meet, mentioned Jens Bastian of the Berlin-based Basis for Science and Politics.

Based on Bastian, the brand new regulation solely “reactively modifications the authorized context to the truth that has existed within the Greek labor marketplace for a number of years,” which means that many individuals work greater than 5 days already. By working longer and incomes extra, “completely different staff might be topic to greater revenue tax and social safety charges, which might offset potential wage will increase.” from working longer hours,” Bastian advised DW.

The employer has the fitting to alter working circumstances

“The regulation handed final 12 months will kill the five-day work week,” mentioned Aris Kazakos, professor emeritus of labor regulation from Thessaloniki. A outstanding lawyer warns in opposition to absolutely the energy of employers in relation to staff. Since engaged on the sixth additional day is topic to the employer’s proper to alter working circumstances, the worker will be unable to guard himself from this, Kazakos defined in an interview with DW.

He advocates for collective bargaining, which is being pushed additional and additional into the background by way of campaign-passed laws New Democracy Conservative Authorities (ND). “In negotiations with every particular person worker, the employer is the true grasp of the scenario, ordering (the worker. – Order.) nearly all of the circumstances he needs, aside from the minimal rights established by labor laws,” continues the regulation professor.

Chief of the New Democracy Get together, Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos MitsotakisPhoto: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Pictures

If the legal guidelines are relaxed, even this minimal protection mechanism, he laments, will probably be eroded. “Because the employer can dictate working circumstances which might be favorable to him, this routinely results in the employment relationship starting to be unfair, since what is useful to at least one get together can not by no means be truthful,” Aris Kozakos clarifies. On this regard, for workers, “retaining a job generally is a stronger incentive than refusing to work longer due to the employer,” mentioned Jens Bastian.

The official motive for introducing a six-day work week in Greece is the shortage of certified staff within the native labor market. The nation’s inhabitants is predicted to lower from 10.7 million in 2019 to round 10.4 million in 2029. The brand new regulation finally makes additional time cheaper for employers, placing from the necessity to rent extra staff.

Threat of a rise within the variety of accidents at work

In most European nations unions are preventing for lowered working hours with out lowered wages. One of many goals of such a wrestle is to advertise employment. It’s because a 35-hour or four-day working week limits the variety of additional time hours and subsequently forces employers to rent further staff.

Bangladeshi migrants already work six days per week at this garment manufacturing facility in GreecePhoto: Arafatul Islam / DW

On the identical time, analysis reveals that it will increase productiveness and worker engagement. Greek laws on a six-day work week and the related restrictions on arbitration procedures, alternatively, is popping again the clock, stresses Aris Kazakos.

And he warns that the workload of working six days per week will increase employee security dangers. The variety of accidents at work in Greece is already very excessive. In 2023, 179 folks died in work-related accidents within the nation. A 12 months earlier, 104 deaths had been recorded.

Is that this a contemporary dependancy?

Low wages, restricted job alternatives and more and more lengthy working hours with out important compensation are forcing many Greeks to maneuver overseas. And they’re more and more refusing to work from home within the tourism sector as a result of the working circumstances there, in accordance with specialists, are just like modern-day slavery.

Santorini island – a paradise for vacationers Photograph: Sarah Hucal/DW

Well-liked amongst vacationers In Greek vacationer islands equivalent to Mykonos and Santorini, seasonal staff are already required to work seven days per week. As well as, they’re typically saved in crowded housing. It isn’t unusual for ten folks to share one room through which they need to reside and sleep. However a minimum of the pay is sweet in Mykonos, which can’t be mentioned about much less prestigious locations. For this reason resort homeowners in standard vacationer areas such because the Halkidiki peninsula in northern Greece can not discover sufficient employees. In consequence, this summer season many lodges and eating places opened with delays.

A six-day working week is simply a short-term answer and can’t be the reply to Greece’s wider financial issues, says German economist Jens Bastian. Longer work weeks won’t compensate for labor shortages in the long term, and different nations ought to take word, Bastian concluded.