Greece imposes a six-day work week with more hours of work per day

2023-09-23 13:04:05

The reform approved this Friday thanks to the conservative majority in the Greek Parliament allows companies to impose a sixth working day, on Saturdays or Sundays, and vary employees’ schedules 24 hours in advance to adapt them to production needs. The law has been approved thanks to the 158 seats, out of a total of 300, that the conservative New Democracy, of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has after the elections last June, while all the opposition parties, from the extreme right to the radical left, they voted against.

The reform allows workers to voluntarily have a second job, for a maximum of five hours a day, alongside their main activity of eight hours a day. In addition, it establishes that companies in various sectors can impose a sixth working day for which workers will receive an additional 40% on the daily salary. Likewise, it introduces contracts for “on-call employees” who will practically not have a fixed schedule but will work when their employer requires it, as long as they are notified at least 24 hours in advance, according to Efe.

Yesterday, Thursday, thousands of people throughout Greece protested against the new law, within a 24-hour strike that was called by ADEDY, the civil servants’ union, and joined by workers’ unions from various sectors. According to them, the law will eliminate the last remaining labor rights in Greece, such as the five-day and eight-hour workday.

Less control of overtime

The reform also contemplates that companies that adopt a digital time control system will not be required to previously register changes in the working day or overtime on a State electronic platform, as was the case until now. According to the Government, this will reduce the excessive administrative burden on companies, and argues that working hours are already recorded in the internal systems of each company. However, unions denounce that without this state control, companies will be able to manipulate schedules and be exempt from paying overtime.

Workers’ representatives warn that the reform plans to strengthen labor inspections, a service that is already facing a major lack of personnel.

During an intervention in Parliament prior to the vote, the Minister of Labor, Adonis Georgiadis, defended his bill and assured that “it neither eliminates the eight-hour day nor the five-day (week).” “Today the labor market is a jungle,” said Georgiadis, who stressed that the law addresses this disorder, making the schedule more flexible to reduce work and undeclared overtime and thus protect workers.

The law also makes it mandatory to publish all individual contracts between employer and employee on a State digital platform and will make it possible for the first time to sign these contracts electronically.

This is not the first time that a Government headed by Mitsotakis introduces labor changes that provoke social protest. In 2021, his previous Government presented a bill that eliminated the maximum limit of eight hours of work per day, while respecting 40 hours per week.

The reform, which was approved thanks to the absolute majority that New Democracy also enjoyed then, also extended the permitted annual overtime hours from a maximum of 120 to 150.