The Basic Confederation of Greek Employees (GSEE) responded with an offended assertion to the Labour Ministry’s intention to increase working hours to as much as 13 per day for a similar employer.
Employee representatives argue that the Greek authorities is trying to solidify a follow that can bodily and mentally exhaust staff, with out really bettering the productiveness of the Greek financial system.
“The additional deregulation of the labour framework and the shift of duty for managing working and leisure time to particular person negotiation — the place the employer-employee relationship is imbalanced — basically undermines any effort to revive a framework of free collective bargaining,” stated the GSEE’s assertion.
It continued: “The length of working time, relaxation intervals, and trip for employees can’t be regulated by authorities intervention, however solely by social dialogue, by collective bargaining.”
The group spoke of “an try and dismantle collective labour legislation” and concluded: “We won’t enable, amongst all of the ‘firsts’ Greece already holds when it comes to residing and dealing circumstances for wage earners, for it to additionally acquire essentially the most deregulated labour legislation framework within the EU.”
The 13-hour week, extra time and adaptability
The proposed legislation, which can be topic to public session within the coming weeks, supplies that staff working for a similar employer will have the ability to work as much as 13 hours per day. Till now, this measure solely utilized to these working for 2 completely different employers.
As Labour Minister Niki Kerameos defined in a TV interview, employees will obtain a major 40% bonus for extra time.
“If you happen to do as much as 13 hours at two employers, that comes out to €104. If you happen to work the identical hours for one employer, it involves €119,” she stated.
On the identical time, there can be safeguards in place guaranteeing that staff can not work greater than 48 hours per week over a 4-month interval, and that annual extra time doesn’t exceed 150 hours.
Nonetheless, GSEE believes that this opens the door to abuse on the expense of employees.
“You get up within the morning. You go to work at 8am and work repeatedly till 9pm. Is that sustainable? Is it sustainable in your productiveness? Is it sustainable in your well being? Is it sustainable for reconciling your loved ones life, your private life and your different commitments? We imagine it’s not sustainable. The nations which have the best productiveness, reminiscent of Denmark, Finland, and Germany, are the nations which have the shortest working hours,” Christos Goulas, director normal of the GSEE Labour Institute, instructed Euronews.
The Labour Ministry argues that the objective is to assist sectors vital to the Greek financial system, reminiscent of hospitality and tourism, that are struggling to fill job vacancies.
In accordance with the examine “Careers and Candidates 2024”, performed by the Athens College of Economics and Enterprise in collaboration with kariera.gr, reaching work-life stability is without doubt one of the high priorities for employees in Greece — particularly amongst youthful individuals.
It ranks third within the checklist of principal elements when selecting an employer, after wage and job safety.
“The discovering of this survey when it comes to what retains and attracts staff to an organization is that an important issue is remuneration. That’s no shock, contemplating we’re simply rising from an financial disaster and likewise going through rising residing prices,” Ioannis Nikolaou, professor of human sources administration on the UBA, instructed Euronews.
Employers in Greece are asking for extra versatile types of labor. They declare they can not discover employees, and that vacant positions threaten the viability of their companies.
Unemployment in Greece has fallen to eight.3%, the bottom degree in 17 years.
Nonetheless, the typical wage in Greece stays virtually half the European common wage, in keeping with current knowledge from the GSEE Labour Institute.