2024-07-24 05:31:35
The legislative reform that allows a six-day work week for a total of 48 hours worked on a voluntary basis has officially come into force in an initiative that aims to improve productivity and attract foreign investment.
The initiative of the conservative government led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis also aims to improve the use of qualified personnel and at the same time reduce the black economy. Inflation has forced many employees to look for a second job, but this measure is intended to improve conditions with a single job. Greece is turning its labour policy to the antipodes of the reduction of working hours that Yolanda Díaz is trying to promote, with a 4-day work week that will lead to 37.5 hours.
The extension of opening hours can only be applied to certain sectors such as factories or small businesses, as well as companies that provide uninterrupted service. Tourism and hospitality are excluded.
The measure has been harshly criticised by unions as being contrary to labour rights, which they point out is contrary to the trend in other European countries such as Germany, Belgium, France, Iceland and the United Kingdom, which are proposing to reduce the number of weekly hours to below 40 or even reduce the number of days worked from five to four with shifts of ten instead of eight hours.
“It is an outrage,” says Akis Sotiropoulos of the civil servants’ union Adedy. “It makes no sense at all. When almost all other civilised countries apply a four-day week, Greece decides to go in the opposite direction,” he said. Although in this case the measure can be applied only in “exceptional” periods of increased workload, both the unions and the left-wing opposition argue that, in practice, the law will make the six-day work week “commonplace”, taking into account, they also claim, the almost non-existent labour inspections.
According to the then Minister of Labour, Adonis Georgiadis, the law aims to bring “order” to what he called the “jungle” of the Greek labour market, where most employees already worked more than 40 hours a week through undeclared overtime.
This measure even led to a clash last year after its approval between the Greek Minister of Labour, Adonis Georgiadis, and the Spanish Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz. The leader of Sumar criticised the measure, claiming that it was “a step backwards”. The Greek, for his part, reacted by claiming that her words were a “terrible mistake” because it would serve to maintain legalised work at 13 hours a day and combat multiple employment, while in Spain with the current regulation there can be cases of 16 hours a day. “I don’t understand why in Greece it is slavery, but in Spain it is a good thing, in Spain there are 500,000 people with this type of contract”, concluded Georgiadis.
How will it work?
Employers in businesses that operate 24 hours a day throughout the week, such as factories and other types of industries, will have the right to impose a sixth working day and 48 hours of work per week on their workers if necessary.
There are two types of companies that can access this new modality. First, those that are “continuous in nature”, that is, those that operate five days a week, working 24 hours a day without closing, through rotating shifts. The second group is those that work between five and six days a week, 24 hours a day, but with a system of alternating shifts.
What does this mean for workers? Employees will receive an additional 40% on top of their daily wage for those eight extra hours, while if that sixth day falls on a Sunday or holiday, the increase rises to 115%. To this should be added an additional 25% if this shift is done “during night hours.”
Source: El Economista Magazine