More like reintroduce. Used to be ‘normal’ before 19th & 20th century worker movements. We are going backwards….
It won’t even improve efficiency. Might even make it worse! More likely mistakes will happen + these people will spend less on leisure/shopping.
Really sad development. It seems like they all come up with that old ideas. Its been not so long (1920s) that they shot down a labour strike in the US or that child labour was normal ...
Well organizing used to be illegal too in the past, striking workers even got shot dead for it back in the gilded age. Sometimes "legal" isn't the same as "good".
It's also just not true, germany had 48 hour weeks the whole time already. Most people don't do those jobs but Greece doesn't make them mandatory either
48 hours across max 6 days is still what German labour law sets out. So it's not like Germany does NOT NOT have a six-day week. But they don't really have it, either. Because the labour market, unions, standard contracts etc are basically now all centered in or around 40 hours over 5 days, except in some specific sectors.
I'd also like to add that sometimes it's even a challenge to reliably do 40 hours if you've got kids and rely on daycare, because kindergartens are quite underfunded and suffer from a lack of teachers. So before anybody wants to suggest more working hours, let's talk about supporting parents sufficiently to do the current level of regular working hours.
Many work even less than 40 hours. 35h is fairly common in many sectors, for example for mechanical engineers in certain industries. For example, all (or most?) engineers at BMW work 35h. I also know some in other professions who reduced to 32h.
Mostly in Gastronomy. Some Waiters from abroad have jobs where they have to work 6 days a week and have one rest day. But it's mostly just seasonal workers that are there just to earn some money in the summer/winter season and get back to their country. The ones that work 6 days a week usually do it because they want to but there are many workers that are exploited in this way. I've seen it in some places.
The law says you are allowed to regularly work 48 hours because german law considers Saturday a working day and calculates with 8 hour workdays. I know almost nobody works that way but the drama about greece is kind of ridiculous while we have the same legislation.
People with higher responsibility often work 48 hours or even more (after office/factory at home).
But well, they usually have a good salary anyway.
As normal factory dude who is assembling, let's say gear boxes, I would insist on a 40 hour week and I'm fine with that.
Indeed, the tourism sector was already working 6 day a week, but now it became a national thing for all of Greece, besides the Healthcare sector I think.
I know the move is being justified as a means to boost productivity and employment but I feel like there should have been attempts to improve productivity and efficiency within the regular 5 day work week rather than just adding one more workday to catchup. For tourism I can see the point since it's seasonal work. What are the local reactions?
This won't increase productivity. Productivity is value produced divided by unit of time.
If you increase the time at work but value of produced goods does not go up, you decrease productivity.
Also, because people are not robots and the amount of procrastination or unproductive hours will increase this won't do good either.
Decreasing working hours and introducing 4 day work weeks would actually increase productivity because of this.
The right wing talking points against just show that productivity is just an excuse to control the life of workers.
I agree. From anecdotal experience a willing well-rested person will manage to work much more productively in 1 work day as opposed to a tired person over 2-3 work days. Maybe this could work on a very temporary basis to prop up Greek economy until 2024 concludes but I don't think it is healthy or sustainable long-term.
For sure. I think it will cause many Greeks to move abroad, if they have enough money that is, but if they don't the ones in the country will feel depressed and exhausted, the economy will fail even more. This law just favors Employers and not Economy.
It's not going to work, this only increases exploitation. If you make it legal to work 6 days, the employers do not have to pay any extras for the 6th day. Otherwise you might have still been working, but you would have to be compansated. Not anymore.
> as a means to boost productivity
When you say productivity, I think you actually mean production.
Productivity is a rate of output, whereas production is the total output.
Forgive me, you probably already know this, but just as an example - you have 1 worker at a pencil factory who works a 5 day week. In an average day he makes 10 pencils, so in an average week he makes 50 pencils, so in an average year (excluding time off) he makes 2,600 pencils. This means his productivity is 10 pencils/day. His total production for the year is 2,600 pencils.
Now if you increase his working hours to 6 days a week, but he can now only make 9 pencils in an average day, this means his productivity has reduced to 9 pencils/day. However, if you now look at total production, you will see he makes 2,700 pencils per year. So you can see that although productivity has fallen, production has risen.
>Greece has controversially introduced a six-day working week for some businesses in a bid to boost productivity and employment in the southern European country.
I directly quoted the article but this example is helpful and an easy way to remember even though I am aware of the difference. Thanks!
Just one more workhour bro, one single more hour of work, I swear bro, I promise bro we're gonna fix the economy, just some more work, this time it's gonna fix the economy bro, I swear.
We are. Our population is shrinking, the signs have been there for the last decade and a half. Everyone who had the choice to leave almost certainly did.
Funny how politicians interpret everything the wrong way. EVERYBODY IS LEAVING NOW NOBODY DOES WORK ANYMORE. Let’s introduce 6 day work week, this will help.
Stupid mf
They are correct in their diagnosis of Greece's low productivity. \*\*\*BUT\*\*\*, the solution to solve low labor output is not to increase working hours, it is to increase productivity. There is little homogeneity in the Greek workforce, I have met all of them. There's people who work for twice or thrice minimum wage and report zero income, there's people who work for little over 1.000Eur and work like dogs, there's people who are registered as working from 9 to 5, ~~but take a legit 1.5 hour break in the day to go grab "coffee" (this is very prominent in the big cities)~~ *(yea scratch out that lined part, criticizing it is not a very clever thing and now I see why)*
There is a lot of overworking, laziness and crime (37% of the Greek workforce are freelancers and you better bet they have never paid tax once in their lives.) I know a 60 year old man who has been running a canteen since my dad's years, and my family has never received a singular receipt.
What is common is a feeling of being let down by the nation. The politicians, the economists, every kind of minister under the sun, because they are truly and utterly incompetent. They are leeches on the economy and you best bet they have never done an honest day's work. The PM was in a showcase of new buses for Thessaloniki, and he did not even know how to scan a damn bus ticket card. A ticket card. That man is 56 years old and he does not know how to use a physical card because he has probably never had to use a bus in his life.
The vicious cycle of tax evasion leads to poor government investment. But the government is not great, which leads to distrust, and more tax evasion. This phenomenon will not be fixed, as the government doesn't have, doesn't want, or otherwise funneled the money into the pockets of anonymous people which would have been used to tackle this. It is not any better that many in the tax agency are not interested in solving this. Who realistically wants to fix the problem, when they know as long as it exists, they are valuable?
For anyone Greek, *if you can,* don't wait around. The beaches of the Ionian in an August summer are not worth the pain of working anywhere near Greece or its borders. Do yourselves a favor and emigrate, before you yourselves find yourselves financially incapable of doing so.
Most people in every office job are taking 1.5 break to grab coffee all across Europe. Especially in service heavy economies and big corporations.
There are litteraly not enough work for everyone with our productivity gains. But there are too many responsibilities that require a human stakeholder.
Yeah, studies show that people are certainly not being fully productive all day. If they're not taking 1.5 hour coffee breaks they're on their phones or finding some other way to waste time while not getting caught.
I observed my colleagues and see it as a way to develop working relationships with them through coffee break. Working but without the working if you get what I mean.
>There are litteraly not enough work for everyone with our productivity gains.
You have not met "that" manager yet and I wish you continued good fortune.
They are not stupid just corrupt to the bone and only care about their own asses. Its not just greece either, the whole balkan peninsula is a shithole.
I personally know many Greeks who live in our country. Moved recently. Many claimed they didn't see the future in their country. It's sad, Greece is a beautiful country
Honestly.. lots of employers in large parts of western Europe are switch ing to 4 days work weeks at full pay in the high qualified sectors. Why would you stay in Greece as a young smart person with your future ahead of you? Considerably better pay at two days a week less
Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Denmark for example. Average work week is 33-35 hours a week. Almost all my friends work 32 or 36 hours in 4 days. At my job 4x9 is the standard and gets paid as 40 hours
Oh absolutely. It is not a general rule. But most companies offer it and many employees do it. I work for one of the big 4. The majority of people at all of the Big 4 work four days a week
Edit: and yes, I get paid fulltime, for working 4x9
I can guarantee you that is far from the norm in both Denmark and Germany, having lived and worked in both and having family and friends there currently. A couple companies made headlines with it but in practice even at those companies it is the exception and not the rule.
Norway? No. The average work week here is still 5 days, 7,5 hours for a total of 37,5 hours. When a small IT company tried it, it became national news. So not "lots of employers".
More people have participated in this thread than work in a Norwegian company with a 4 day week.
France is actually productive though. Maybe one of the most productive countries on earth when you consider actual active hours worked vs gdp. I say this as a Brit. France is remarkable for its intense desire to protect workers rights.
Quite. I’ve worked with French colleagues. In addition to being more productive with the time actually worked when at work things seem to be more relaxed. There is space for legitimate breaks etc. The U.K. has a massive issue with being present and looking busy. We are like the Japan of Europe.
I mean… I am not thrilled about the work environment in France to begin with. I feel like you guys have no spare time whatsoever. That 2 hour lunch break in the middle of the day is annoying as hell, and i feel like i have nothing left of the evening when i get home. I miss working in Norway. :(
Taking the time to have a proper lunch and often at the restaurant is a real cultural thing in France. Lunch break isn't just to eat, it's to socialize and to have a good time
When I worked 37h a week I could definitely leave work at 4pm everyday. Its even easier if you're working 35h. Yes I could take a 2h lunch break but I didnt and very few people did more than a few time a year. Our minimum lunch time was 45 minutes and thats what people took.
>Taking the time to have a proper lunch and often at the restaurant is a real cultural thing in France. Lunch break isn't just to eat, it's to socialize and to have a good time
Yes it’s a thing in here… and I hate it!
I would rather have a 40 minutes break, then go back to work and leave before 6pm… but it’s almost impossible.
Having a nice lunch with coworkers once or twice a month? sure, why not! Everyday, that’s just too much
2 day weekend definitely is not enough.
4 day working week is OK imo, you get one day recovery, one day to yourself and one day to spin back up again. Gives you time to do all your chores, spend time with family and maybe even have hobbies and exercise.
6 day work week? Get yersel tae fuck.
> you get one day recovery, one day to yourself and one day to spin back up again.
That's optimistic. I feel like just chores and errands can be 1-2 days.
Here in Greece, during summer most people working in restaurants and hotel work 7 days per week, 10 or even more hours per day.
This law basically tries to make what is already happening legal and bring it to the benefit of the worker, as the 6th day is paid more than the other days.
What will happen is most will keep working illegally for many hours and this law won't change anything.
Worked for a Greek company in Spain and they tried to implement this Greek “work schedule” to the Spanish people and literally all of them left in the first month, so they had to hire people from Greece to work in the company.
Greek work culture in general is fucked up and main reason why so many young Greek people immigrate
How do people continue to have the will to live while working 6/7 days every 7 day period? That is not living- I’d take a life as a slave under Roman rule in certain colonies over that.
This only applies to factories and industries with round the clock function. It doesn't affect hospitality/tourism workers at all.
Fucking populists can't even read a 3 sentence article.
Friday: completely dead and my brain/body shut down after work knowing I can finally enter rest state. Usually end up doing nothing with my nights, or crash early when I try and do something.
Saturday: overwhelming feeling of having to fit as much in my day as possible since it's the only true break day where I don't have to go to bed knowing I have to work the next day. Paradox of sleeping in because I can vs. getting up early to fit things in my day.
Sunday: enjoy until about mid-afternoon where the impending doom sets in about returning to work the very next morning, cue all necessary mental and physical preparation for it for second half of the day. Feel guilty doing anything later into the evening and even if i do, I'm not really enjoying it or fully energized for it.
Yep, 2-day weekends are fake as fuck. And this is coming from someone that loves their job overall. Just feel like on this 7-day cycle, my brain and body belong to my job and it's all sorts of gymnastics to try and disconnect from standard train of work thought. Like I legitimately can't disconnect even when I try, with work thoughts rushing in my head all weekend because I know no matter how much I make out of my weekend, I have to pick up the endless grind again Monday morning like I'm grinding in an MMO or something. I don't hate my life at all, I just legitimately have no idea how to disconnect unless I have an endless stream of distractions forming a chain (sports, video games, outdoor stuff, parties, etc.).
So, young greek people will just leave for better opportunities in the EU, and Greece will have to accept large numbers of immigrants to take on these jobs (or else its economy will explode). What a horrible situation.
I was going to say, didn't the current right-wing government get elected mainly due to fears of immigration? The leopards are getting fat on faces in Greece, it seems.
the greek government never fought immigration, at least in reality.
Our fatty politicians are taking huge amounts from EU for those people. Where the money goes though.....
Because they’re desperate.
Also, because Greece - due to location and geography - is a prime entry point. It’s the easternmost and southernmost country of Europe and the EU (barring Cyprus). Its waters border Turkey, Egypt, Libya, all of them major transit ports for immigrants. And waters are much harder to guard vs land borders. On the other hand, Greece has land borders with another EU country, Bulgaria. Which means, once in Greece, a realistic pathway exists to reach the rest of continental Europe and the west, which is what most immigrants want.
So it’s no surprise immigrants would come to Greece. Then, you ask, why stay in Greece? Well honestly, it’s not about wanting to stay in Greece, it’s more like they get *stuck* in Greece.
One man’s garbage is another’s man treasure.
A lot of countries are now imposing stricter migration and visa rules.
Greece is still better place to work and live than like 80% of this world.
It's a win win win win for the politicians because all the skilled local people who hate them will move out, their rich buddies will get their third world slave labour, the right wing troglodytes will have another excuse to tickle their racist prostate and the same politicians will promise that they will get rid of those pesky immigrants who terk er jerbs once they get re-elected.
Yes, it's optional ofc. Most people will remain on 5 days, but if you apply for a job that requires 6, you should expect more money or just really consider if the job is worth it for whatever they are paying.
This is how capitalism works. We see it every day on product prices. Companies increase the price more than needed. First people moan. Then people forget. Then it's the norm
In theory it is optional. But theory with reality differs vastly. This will be the new norm for many jobs. Also, let me remind you in theory the employer needs to pay your overtime but in Greece if you ask about overtime everyone will laugh at your face.
They are banking on that not being true. If robotics progresses to a certain point they will not need us. Us acting like the problem will solve itself is literally their plan.
To provide some context:
There are many employers, businesses, services etc. that would **love** to stay open for business 6 or even 7 days per week. That makes sense in some areas, like hospitality, entertainment, etc. .
Up until now, here’s the most common ways employers achieved that, say to stay open on a 6th day, in *increasing* order of likelihood:
1. Hire a person legally, for a part time job, to do a shift on the 6th day. 100% **legal** and by far the least common option.
2. Hire a person unofficially and pay them under the table, to do a shift on the 6th day. 100% **illegal** and the second most common option, a big distance from the previous.
3. Force one of your current employees, under threat of unemployment, to work an extra shift on the 6th day, and paying for that shift under the table. 100% **illegal**, and by far the most common option.
With this law, **the most common option of forcing a 6-day work week onto an employee, transforms from 100% illegal to 100% legal.**
The way the government and their supporters try to spin this is:
>“Since you were not allowed legally to work 6 days per week, for the 6th day you were taking money under the table and not declared as an employee. That meant that your employer, if he so wished, could withhold that money, and there’s nothing you could do legally cause you’re not on the books for that day. Now though you’re covered since you’re officially employed on the 6th day! Also, the employer will have to pay your insurance and pension contributions, as well as tax, so the government wins too. Win win!”
The reality is vastly different of course. Not only is a deeply unpopular (for the workers) practice made legal and hence impossible to report as an abusive, but the workers even stand to lose wages.
Because employer is **allowed to split the 40-hour workweek over 6 days now instead of 5 before, keeping the exact same salary**.
Even if everything happens by the book in the implementation, this is something the employees absolutely do **not** want. Because:
1. Some costs, like commute time and gas, are fixed per day (and not per working hour), so for the same amount of work hours and salary, you end up losing a couple hours of commute and gas money.
2. On top of it, the vast majority of employees prefer 5 8-hour workdays instead of 6 6.7-hour workdays.
In practice though, it’s gonna be even worse. Assuming the same work ethics and mentality from employers continues as before (and we have no reason to assume otherwise)what’s gonna happen is this:
3. You’ll end up working 7-7:15 hours per day, instead of the exact 6:40 per day. It’s very common in Greece to be asked to overstay 30’ or even 1hour (**unpaid**), to “cleanup” or to “take care of a 5-minute task”. There’s no chance in hell people will be allowed to leave at 40’ past, on the clock. The shift timetables will be rounded up. And since this unpaid overtime goes per shift, given now you’ll get 6 shifts instead of 5, You’ll end up in total **losing about 2-3 hours of unpaid work, per week, at minimum.**
Overall, Greek workers now are getting fucked even by legitimate employers that play by the books and follow the law, **on top** of the abusive ones that don’t follow the laws and pay under the table.
The law legalised a formerly illegal, abusive employer tactic, changing the terms of the game into something that is deeply unpopular with workers. Resulting in a **net loss** of worker rights.
That’s why workers *hate* this law and protest against it, while employers *love* it and celebrate its passing.
And how unpopular it is with workers, is beyond doubt. All major worker bodies, unions, federations, as well as the vast majority of workers are very *unhappy* and deeply *dissatisfied* with this law. And this is a fact, as you can see from their statements, their protests, their strikes, their announcements.
Meanwhile, employers **love** it and are basking how it’s gonna “increase productivity”, “improve competitiveness” and “promote entrepreneurship”.
This tells you all you need to know.
My personal guess is that employers that took that path before, will continue paying under the table and keep it illegal. Because they peas less tax and benefits (like pension contributions, insurance, etc.) this way. If they ever wanted to be legal, they could have done so already, I don’t think this law changes anything for them.
But yes, what you’re saying is also a possibility. (And something that already was happening for some workers, especially tourism workers during high season, ie working two extra days “under the table”).
The solution to an aging population and a brain drain is to go in the opposite direction and improve the lives of younger people so that they are less stressed and more likely to have kids, but sure work your population even more and make them even more stressed.
It’s far too late for these kinds of solutions. Governments ignored falling birth rates first decades, now damage control is the only thing that can be done.
People sounded the alarm but the importance of getting children was scoffed at in popular discourse and was conflated with sexist ideology. This is just a consequence which has been warned about.
Its absolutely BS. Germany has a 6 day working week. Most people just would never agree to it thats why most people work 40h on 5 days. But its allowed to work 48h on 6 days.
Considering Germany has some of the lowest actual working hours
per week in all of Europe thanks to the prevalence of part-time contracts
it is hilarious that the letter of our law is technically still written for the
six day workweek of times long past. Watch people’s brains wrinkle
while you explain to them that the legal minimum for PTO per year
is 20 days, not 24 as stated in the law …
> I do not know a single person in Germany that has only 24 days, let alone 20. Everybody asks for 30 days and in a majority of cases get it.
30 is far from the default but indeed very common.
As often, the legal minimum is far from the average case. Which is
kind of the point as it’s supposed to set that absolute lowest bound
still considered acceptable.
Wait my bad , I kept thinking that it would be downright dystopian to start shortening weekends (or lengthening the work week) , so my brain had automatically kept correcting it to a 4-day work week.
I cannot fathom having to spend 6 out of 7 days a week working.
According to our wise government, the best way to combat brain drain and a declining population is to ....force those that can stay and have kids work more! Yeah! Brilliant!
In solidarity with all of the workers who have to go through this. Five already sometimes sucks so hard because hardly shit gets ever done if you want to have a live besides work and get proper sleep.
I hope that gets abandoned sooner then installed.
Ok so, I have been researching this for a week, so let's talk details. Zeroth of, I do not under any circumstances support this move for no job or sector. We should be moving to a 4 day or 36 hour week, like everyone else. This is a disgrace and an absolute failure on the government's part. Mitsotakis calling this "pro-worker" is a liar, and it is clear that this man has not once had to work as an actual employee.
First of, the 6-day work week is not for everyone. You read the headlines, you might assume so. The reality is that this only encompasses private sectors that require 24/7 service. That means your regular office worker or shop worker or farmer will not be affected. ~~This specifically targets tourism sectors~~ , and accidentally targets tech support sectors. ~~It importantly leaves out public service sectors, meaning that if you need to file your taxes or pick up your mail on a Saturday, eat shit and take the day off.~~
EDIT: As comments bellow, the tourism sector seems to be excluded, and as a result anything that follows on this comment about how this change affects it is incorrect. I apologize for my mistake.
Secondly, there are no contracts that would be 6-day work weeks even in those sectors. Rather, you sign a 5-day work week contract, and on "periods of increased needs" your employer and you agree that you work a 6th individual work day of no more than 8 hours that has to be on Saturday, and that individual day needs to be set by the employer on Ergani, the Greek Bureau of Work System.
That of course is completely disconnected from the reality of work in the private sector, as agreeing to it will rarely be the choice of the employee. Once the day is set on Ergani, the emplyee is supposed to work it. Not appearing would be grounds for termination.
This is on top of an additional law that allows up to 2 hours of unpaid overtime a day, leading to effectively a 58-hour week (and remaining to 50-hours for the excluded sectors). And there-in lies the game. This is without a doubt yet another "unpaid overtime" law. An already huge problem in Greece, only now even more stacked towards the employer. In theory, this would/could buck the the trend of tourism sector jobs being "10-hour 7-day work for 8-hour 5-day of pay", which is a huge problem in the whole of islandic Greece. By alleviating the cost of "work" for the employers they expect less unpaid work for the employees and thus better pay for them and higher taxes for the government. I really doubt that's going to actually come to pass.
Now hear me out: how about a week-long working week? It just never ends.
Work 365 days a year. Infinite productivity hack.
Your working 'week' begins when you enter the labor force and ends only when you get unemployed, retire or die.
If you never change jobs or never retire the working 'week' will become a working life we're going to give you a medal or paint some other fantastic participation trophy on your grave. So productive. Much wow. /s
Basically, the government knows that employers exploit workers and break the law, so they made it legal so that they can get tax money from the extra pay. The oligarchs get more freedom to exploit and the government gets more money to funnel to friends
Win-win!
Private sector is ruthless. It’s the same in Turkey if you’re not working a gov job. I guess Greece is now extending this 6 day work week to the gov employees too.
They will not dare to make any obvious changes, they are just sweetening the pill right now. They are mostly ignoring this law here in the media, as if nothing will change and it doesn't for now.
But they have managed to open the road, that was their goal, for the workers to get used to the abandonment of their rights. Like with the abolition of the collective work contracts during the financial crisis. So not right now, but in the future if we are idiots enough to vote them again (I won't hold my breath that we won't, 41% last time 🫣), they will extend it and in general play as they wish with our time and lives.
Oh now that makes more sense. Also in turkey they sometimes expect you to come on Sunday as well. If you don't you will be the first one to get fired. I can only imagine Greek bros experiencing the same.
"Labor unions and political analysts have sharply criticized the move." The labor unions should have not even allowed it to get that far. I hope the Greek youth will storm the streets.
The 1960s future of a 3 day work week after seeing the incredible productivity boom of automation, and now of potential AI on top of it.
> Introduce completely unchecked, unfettered, capitalistic greed into the equation.
Now back to 6+ work days while sending literal children to work factories for pliable and cheap labor.
Truly the progressive vision of the 20th century has come to pass.
These are the consequences of the so called "plan to rescue Greece". The MOU's that were forced upon my country with extreme taxation, austerity, cuts from salaries, pensions, public services and the theft of public as well as private property from our lending "partners" that send us back to the stone age. So much for Europe solidarity.
Decreasing even just an hour from the workday:
Employers - we will literally go bankrupt and never recover from this.
6 day work week with mentally broken workers, chronic fatigue settling in and high turnover rates resulting in a serious decrease in knowledge and skills:
Employers - our plan is genius but y’all are too lazy to put in the work so we’ll import non-EU ~~slaves~~ grateful, loyal workers who can appreciate our generosity.
People then vote the far-right populists.
Employers: Goddamn woke sexo-marxists, what have you done!
"Studies show people are more productive and output higher quality work with 4 day weeks"
*Greece introduces 6 day work week*
Greece: "Am I doing it right?"
Meanwhile UK companies are testing 4 days work week, with [many of them making it permanent](https://fortune.com/europe/2024/02/22/most-u-k-companies-that-took-part-in-the-worlds-largest-4-day-workweek-trial-have-decided-to-keep-it-permanently/)...
If you are from UK, you can [petition for Company to join the 4 day program](https://startups.co.uk/news/flexible-working-request/).
Think its due to what sectors in the economy are dominant. Greece has a lot of tourism and a longer work week makes some sense I guess since that sector is active 7 days a week. For more industry or tech oriented longer hours dont make sense as the average productiveness falls each hour.
"The pro-business government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said the measure is both “worker-friendly” and “deeply growth-orientated.” It is designed to **support employees not being sufficiently compensated for overtime work** and to help crack down on the problem of undeclared labor"
So if this move is about protecting workers from wage theft why not you know make it harder to steal wages from workers working overtime?
Not only they have the worst mandatory military service regime in place ,that pays draftees like 10euro per month for like a year or even more(right?). And now adding 6day working week when you out of that service, fuckin hell what an absolute travesty for younger people all of this is.
“ Greece becomes first EU country to introduce a six-day working week” The first one? How many more is planning this shit? 😂
More like reintroduce. Used to be ‘normal’ before 19th & 20th century worker movements. We are going backwards…. It won’t even improve efficiency. Might even make it worse! More likely mistakes will happen + these people will spend less on leisure/shopping.
Really sad development. It seems like they all come up with that old ideas. Its been not so long (1920s) that they shot down a labour strike in the US or that child labour was normal ...
The children yearn for the Amazon warehouses.
We wouldn't want to let the children go hungry now would we
if only there was a way to feed children without making them work
A free lunch? Away with you, devil!
There is no alternative. Get back to work, kid.
Yeah, that sounds like communism! Don’t you know that communism makes children go hungry!
isn't it normal today? https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/26/child-labor-laws-violations-congress/71301646007/
How did that one go again? Children crave the mines or something? I wouldn't be surprised if Greece had the brilliant idea to reintroduce child labor.
["The children yearn for the mines."](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-children-yearn-for-the-mines)
Greece already has low worker efficiency for the EU, and I believe the longest work week in the EU as well.
It's a good thing that the Troika made Greece take away almost all labour organising power as part of the bailouts
Well organizing used to be illegal too in the past, striking workers even got shot dead for it back in the gilded age. Sometimes "legal" isn't the same as "good".
Bold of you to assume those greeks have the money for leisure or shopping. Jokes aside, you make a valid point. It's rough in greece right now.
And fewer children.
They aren't interested in efficiency, just control. Can't protest if you're working all the time and barely making ends meet.
It's also just not true, germany had 48 hour weeks the whole time already. Most people don't do those jobs but Greece doesn't make them mandatory either
Where do people here in Germany work 48 hours. I only know 6 days but with 40 hours. This model was way more common in the early 00s than nowadays.
48 hours across max 6 days is still what German labour law sets out. So it's not like Germany does NOT NOT have a six-day week. But they don't really have it, either. Because the labour market, unions, standard contracts etc are basically now all centered in or around 40 hours over 5 days, except in some specific sectors. I'd also like to add that sometimes it's even a challenge to reliably do 40 hours if you've got kids and rely on daycare, because kindergartens are quite underfunded and suffer from a lack of teachers. So before anybody wants to suggest more working hours, let's talk about supporting parents sufficiently to do the current level of regular working hours.
Many work even less than 40 hours. 35h is fairly common in many sectors, for example for mechanical engineers in certain industries. For example, all (or most?) engineers at BMW work 35h. I also know some in other professions who reduced to 32h.
Mostly in Gastronomy. Some Waiters from abroad have jobs where they have to work 6 days a week and have one rest day. But it's mostly just seasonal workers that are there just to earn some money in the summer/winter season and get back to their country. The ones that work 6 days a week usually do it because they want to but there are many workers that are exploited in this way. I've seen it in some places.
The law says you are allowed to regularly work 48 hours because german law considers Saturday a working day and calculates with 8 hour workdays. I know almost nobody works that way but the drama about greece is kind of ridiculous while we have the same legislation.
People with higher responsibility often work 48 hours or even more (after office/factory at home). But well, they usually have a good salary anyway. As normal factory dude who is assembling, let's say gear boxes, I would insist on a 40 hour week and I'm fine with that.
How to make molotov cocktails? Can I be arrested for throwing molotov cocktails into parliement in portugal? oh shit... this isn't google
Doesn’t matter, you’re not gonna do it anyway.
Yeah… stop encouraging others!
Lot of companies are going the other way here in Denmark. 4 day work weeks!
Don't they already have some of the highest average weekly working hours in EU?
Indeed, the tourism sector was already working 6 day a week, but now it became a national thing for all of Greece, besides the Healthcare sector I think.
I know the move is being justified as a means to boost productivity and employment but I feel like there should have been attempts to improve productivity and efficiency within the regular 5 day work week rather than just adding one more workday to catchup. For tourism I can see the point since it's seasonal work. What are the local reactions?
This won't increase productivity. Productivity is value produced divided by unit of time. If you increase the time at work but value of produced goods does not go up, you decrease productivity. Also, because people are not robots and the amount of procrastination or unproductive hours will increase this won't do good either. Decreasing working hours and introducing 4 day work weeks would actually increase productivity because of this. The right wing talking points against just show that productivity is just an excuse to control the life of workers.
I agree. From anecdotal experience a willing well-rested person will manage to work much more productively in 1 work day as opposed to a tired person over 2-3 work days. Maybe this could work on a very temporary basis to prop up Greek economy until 2024 concludes but I don't think it is healthy or sustainable long-term.
For sure. I think it will cause many Greeks to move abroad, if they have enough money that is, but if they don't the ones in the country will feel depressed and exhausted, the economy will fail even more. This law just favors Employers and not Economy.
It's not going to work, this only increases exploitation. If you make it legal to work 6 days, the employers do not have to pay any extras for the 6th day. Otherwise you might have still been working, but you would have to be compansated. Not anymore.
> as a means to boost productivity When you say productivity, I think you actually mean production. Productivity is a rate of output, whereas production is the total output. Forgive me, you probably already know this, but just as an example - you have 1 worker at a pencil factory who works a 5 day week. In an average day he makes 10 pencils, so in an average week he makes 50 pencils, so in an average year (excluding time off) he makes 2,600 pencils. This means his productivity is 10 pencils/day. His total production for the year is 2,600 pencils. Now if you increase his working hours to 6 days a week, but he can now only make 9 pencils in an average day, this means his productivity has reduced to 9 pencils/day. However, if you now look at total production, you will see he makes 2,700 pencils per year. So you can see that although productivity has fallen, production has risen.
>Greece has controversially introduced a six-day working week for some businesses in a bid to boost productivity and employment in the southern European country. I directly quoted the article but this example is helpful and an easy way to remember even though I am aware of the difference. Thanks!
Just one more workhour bro, one single more hour of work, I swear bro, I promise bro we're gonna fix the economy, just some more work, this time it's gonna fix the economy bro, I swear.
YOU'RE GOING IN THE WRONG WAY!
Literally how to scare away the few young people who are still staying...
Bro if I was greek and saw this I would leave asap
We are. Our population is shrinking, the signs have been there for the last decade and a half. Everyone who had the choice to leave almost certainly did.
Funny how politicians interpret everything the wrong way. EVERYBODY IS LEAVING NOW NOBODY DOES WORK ANYMORE. Let’s introduce 6 day work week, this will help. Stupid mf
They are correct in their diagnosis of Greece's low productivity. \*\*\*BUT\*\*\*, the solution to solve low labor output is not to increase working hours, it is to increase productivity. There is little homogeneity in the Greek workforce, I have met all of them. There's people who work for twice or thrice minimum wage and report zero income, there's people who work for little over 1.000Eur and work like dogs, there's people who are registered as working from 9 to 5, ~~but take a legit 1.5 hour break in the day to go grab "coffee" (this is very prominent in the big cities)~~ *(yea scratch out that lined part, criticizing it is not a very clever thing and now I see why)* There is a lot of overworking, laziness and crime (37% of the Greek workforce are freelancers and you better bet they have never paid tax once in their lives.) I know a 60 year old man who has been running a canteen since my dad's years, and my family has never received a singular receipt. What is common is a feeling of being let down by the nation. The politicians, the economists, every kind of minister under the sun, because they are truly and utterly incompetent. They are leeches on the economy and you best bet they have never done an honest day's work. The PM was in a showcase of new buses for Thessaloniki, and he did not even know how to scan a damn bus ticket card. A ticket card. That man is 56 years old and he does not know how to use a physical card because he has probably never had to use a bus in his life. The vicious cycle of tax evasion leads to poor government investment. But the government is not great, which leads to distrust, and more tax evasion. This phenomenon will not be fixed, as the government doesn't have, doesn't want, or otherwise funneled the money into the pockets of anonymous people which would have been used to tackle this. It is not any better that many in the tax agency are not interested in solving this. Who realistically wants to fix the problem, when they know as long as it exists, they are valuable? For anyone Greek, *if you can,* don't wait around. The beaches of the Ionian in an August summer are not worth the pain of working anywhere near Greece or its borders. Do yourselves a favor and emigrate, before you yourselves find yourselves financially incapable of doing so.
Most people in every office job are taking 1.5 break to grab coffee all across Europe. Especially in service heavy economies and big corporations. There are litteraly not enough work for everyone with our productivity gains. But there are too many responsibilities that require a human stakeholder.
Yeah, studies show that people are certainly not being fully productive all day. If they're not taking 1.5 hour coffee breaks they're on their phones or finding some other way to waste time while not getting caught.
I observed my colleagues and see it as a way to develop working relationships with them through coffee break. Working but without the working if you get what I mean. >There are litteraly not enough work for everyone with our productivity gains. You have not met "that" manager yet and I wish you continued good fortune.
They are not stupid just corrupt to the bone and only care about their own asses. Its not just greece either, the whole balkan peninsula is a shithole.
They know exactly what they're doing, they don't misinterpret.
I personally know many Greeks who live in our country. Moved recently. Many claimed they didn't see the future in their country. It's sad, Greece is a beautiful country
The Greeks who have the need and the ability to leave have already left
Just remember to leave on Sunday, because Saturday is still a work day!
Honestly.. lots of employers in large parts of western Europe are switch ing to 4 days work weeks at full pay in the high qualified sectors. Why would you stay in Greece as a young smart person with your future ahead of you? Considerably better pay at two days a week less
Who for example? I do not know any country that switched to 4 days work week.
Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Denmark for example. Average work week is 33-35 hours a week. Almost all my friends work 32 or 36 hours in 4 days. At my job 4x9 is the standard and gets paid as 40 hours
but it depends on company, right? What you do? Is your salary similar to someone who work 5 days a week?
Oh absolutely. It is not a general rule. But most companies offer it and many employees do it. I work for one of the big 4. The majority of people at all of the Big 4 work four days a week Edit: and yes, I get paid fulltime, for working 4x9
Cool, thanks for the info :)
I can guarantee you that is far from the norm in both Denmark and Germany, having lived and worked in both and having family and friends there currently. A couple companies made headlines with it but in practice even at those companies it is the exception and not the rule.
Norway? No. The average work week here is still 5 days, 7,5 hours for a total of 37,5 hours. When a small IT company tried it, it became national news. So not "lots of employers". More people have participated in this thread than work in a Norwegian company with a 4 day week.
Came here to this. We should be working less hours, not more.
STOP HELPING YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE
This... would not be taken lightly in France.
ARE YOU KIDDING?? We would be thrilled. One big week of work, a single one, and then all the work is finished. No more work ever after !
:)))
That’s it guys, you need to think like a CEO. 7 digit salaries, single digit days of work per year.
Someone has got to be the elite(that's me) and someone has got to be the slave(that's you).
France is actually productive though. Maybe one of the most productive countries on earth when you consider actual active hours worked vs gdp. I say this as a Brit. France is remarkable for its intense desire to protect workers rights.
The fact that you said that as a Brit makes your statement about France quite powerful.
Quite. I’ve worked with French colleagues. In addition to being more productive with the time actually worked when at work things seem to be more relaxed. There is space for legitimate breaks etc. The U.K. has a massive issue with being present and looking busy. We are like the Japan of Europe.
France would fucking explode
I mean… I am not thrilled about the work environment in France to begin with. I feel like you guys have no spare time whatsoever. That 2 hour lunch break in the middle of the day is annoying as hell, and i feel like i have nothing left of the evening when i get home. I miss working in Norway. :(
1H is the standard
Taking the time to have a proper lunch and often at the restaurant is a real cultural thing in France. Lunch break isn't just to eat, it's to socialize and to have a good time
Yes yes yes, that’s what everyone always tells me at work too, but i miss coming home at 15h or 16h and having the WHOLE evening to socialise with
When I worked 37h a week I could definitely leave work at 4pm everyday. Its even easier if you're working 35h. Yes I could take a 2h lunch break but I didnt and very few people did more than a few time a year. Our minimum lunch time was 45 minutes and thats what people took.
>Taking the time to have a proper lunch and often at the restaurant is a real cultural thing in France. Lunch break isn't just to eat, it's to socialize and to have a good time Yes it’s a thing in here… and I hate it! I would rather have a 40 minutes break, then go back to work and leave before 6pm… but it’s almost impossible. Having a nice lunch with coworkers once or twice a month? sure, why not! Everyday, that’s just too much
We have been beaten into submission like dogs, anyone who has any ambitions left the country
Six day working week sucks. Even 2 days are sometimes not enough for rest.
2 day weekend definitely is not enough. 4 day working week is OK imo, you get one day recovery, one day to yourself and one day to spin back up again. Gives you time to do all your chores, spend time with family and maybe even have hobbies and exercise. 6 day work week? Get yersel tae fuck.
GET YERSEL TAE FUCK
> you get one day recovery, one day to yourself and one day to spin back up again. That's optimistic. I feel like just chores and errands can be 1-2 days.
>Get yersel tae fuck I see the thought alone caused a stroke
This is gramatically-correct scots
I thought it was a letter salad, which is probably ironic for everyone else coming from a dutchman
2 day work week I can live with
2 day biweekly and we have a deal
Biweekly? Do you mean a total of 4 days a week or 2 days every two weeks?
Here in Greece, during summer most people working in restaurants and hotel work 7 days per week, 10 or even more hours per day. This law basically tries to make what is already happening legal and bring it to the benefit of the worker, as the 6th day is paid more than the other days. What will happen is most will keep working illegally for many hours and this law won't change anything.
Worked for a Greek company in Spain and they tried to implement this Greek “work schedule” to the Spanish people and literally all of them left in the first month, so they had to hire people from Greece to work in the company. Greek work culture in general is fucked up and main reason why so many young Greek people immigrate
How do people continue to have the will to live while working 6/7 days every 7 day period? That is not living- I’d take a life as a slave under Roman rule in certain colonies over that.
Some work like this from April to October, they get paid 2-3k per month if you include tips and the rest of the year they chill and have fun.
This only applies to factories and industries with round the clock function. It doesn't affect hospitality/tourism workers at all. Fucking populists can't even read a 3 sentence article.
>6th day is paid more than the other days. Lmao, Greek business owners will just pay base salary and be do e with it, just free labor.
Friday: completely dead and my brain/body shut down after work knowing I can finally enter rest state. Usually end up doing nothing with my nights, or crash early when I try and do something. Saturday: overwhelming feeling of having to fit as much in my day as possible since it's the only true break day where I don't have to go to bed knowing I have to work the next day. Paradox of sleeping in because I can vs. getting up early to fit things in my day. Sunday: enjoy until about mid-afternoon where the impending doom sets in about returning to work the very next morning, cue all necessary mental and physical preparation for it for second half of the day. Feel guilty doing anything later into the evening and even if i do, I'm not really enjoying it or fully energized for it. Yep, 2-day weekends are fake as fuck. And this is coming from someone that loves their job overall. Just feel like on this 7-day cycle, my brain and body belong to my job and it's all sorts of gymnastics to try and disconnect from standard train of work thought. Like I legitimately can't disconnect even when I try, with work thoughts rushing in my head all weekend because I know no matter how much I make out of my weekend, I have to pick up the endless grind again Monday morning like I'm grinding in an MMO or something. I don't hate my life at all, I just legitimately have no idea how to disconnect unless I have an endless stream of distractions forming a chain (sports, video games, outdoor stuff, parties, etc.).
So, young greek people will just leave for better opportunities in the EU, and Greece will have to accept large numbers of immigrants to take on these jobs (or else its economy will explode). What a horrible situation.
It's funny cause over the years they fought immigration hard. This law is so contradicted.
I was going to say, didn't the current right-wing government get elected mainly due to fears of immigration? The leopards are getting fat on faces in Greece, it seems.
No, the government is center-right garden variety neoliberals and there is no widespread focus on immigration in society like in western europe.
the greek government never fought immigration, at least in reality. Our fatty politicians are taking huge amounts from EU for those people. Where the money goes though.....
Why would immigrants move to greece anyway? When there's so many other countries that are better? Greece is lost.
Because they’re desperate. Also, because Greece - due to location and geography - is a prime entry point. It’s the easternmost and southernmost country of Europe and the EU (barring Cyprus). Its waters border Turkey, Egypt, Libya, all of them major transit ports for immigrants. And waters are much harder to guard vs land borders. On the other hand, Greece has land borders with another EU country, Bulgaria. Which means, once in Greece, a realistic pathway exists to reach the rest of continental Europe and the west, which is what most immigrants want. So it’s no surprise immigrants would come to Greece. Then, you ask, why stay in Greece? Well honestly, it’s not about wanting to stay in Greece, it’s more like they get *stuck* in Greece.
One man’s garbage is another’s man treasure. A lot of countries are now imposing stricter migration and visa rules. Greece is still better place to work and live than like 80% of this world.
Well it might become a last resort. Workforce starved Greece will lower it’s requirements for working permits etc. probably.
It's a win win win win for the politicians because all the skilled local people who hate them will move out, their rich buddies will get their third world slave labour, the right wing troglodytes will have another excuse to tickle their racist prostate and the same politicians will promise that they will get rid of those pesky immigrants who terk er jerbs once they get re-elected.
Do they at least get paid more?
Lmao
Yes, it's optional ofc. Most people will remain on 5 days, but if you apply for a job that requires 6, you should expect more money or just really consider if the job is worth it for whatever they are paying.
It will slowly become the new normal and everyone will just get paid the same while working more.
This is how capitalism works. We see it every day on product prices. Companies increase the price more than needed. First people moan. Then people forget. Then it's the norm
In theory it is optional. But theory with reality differs vastly. This will be the new norm for many jobs. Also, let me remind you in theory the employer needs to pay your overtime but in Greece if you ask about overtime everyone will laugh at your face.
It's not optional.
Because of the implication....
Ahhahahahahaha
The world is regressing. We’re failing our futures.
But the rich get richer, so... good for them?
They can only steal for so long while the world crumbles around them. It will catch up to them.
They are banking on that not being true. If robotics progresses to a certain point they will not need us. Us acting like the problem will solve itself is literally their plan.
That’s what reactionaries do
God, please don't let this give the Romanian government any ideas. Those fuckers will do anything but help the people.
HELL NAW AND BYE
To provide some context: There are many employers, businesses, services etc. that would **love** to stay open for business 6 or even 7 days per week. That makes sense in some areas, like hospitality, entertainment, etc. . Up until now, here’s the most common ways employers achieved that, say to stay open on a 6th day, in *increasing* order of likelihood: 1. Hire a person legally, for a part time job, to do a shift on the 6th day. 100% **legal** and by far the least common option. 2. Hire a person unofficially and pay them under the table, to do a shift on the 6th day. 100% **illegal** and the second most common option, a big distance from the previous. 3. Force one of your current employees, under threat of unemployment, to work an extra shift on the 6th day, and paying for that shift under the table. 100% **illegal**, and by far the most common option. With this law, **the most common option of forcing a 6-day work week onto an employee, transforms from 100% illegal to 100% legal.** The way the government and their supporters try to spin this is: >“Since you were not allowed legally to work 6 days per week, for the 6th day you were taking money under the table and not declared as an employee. That meant that your employer, if he so wished, could withhold that money, and there’s nothing you could do legally cause you’re not on the books for that day. Now though you’re covered since you’re officially employed on the 6th day! Also, the employer will have to pay your insurance and pension contributions, as well as tax, so the government wins too. Win win!” The reality is vastly different of course. Not only is a deeply unpopular (for the workers) practice made legal and hence impossible to report as an abusive, but the workers even stand to lose wages. Because employer is **allowed to split the 40-hour workweek over 6 days now instead of 5 before, keeping the exact same salary**. Even if everything happens by the book in the implementation, this is something the employees absolutely do **not** want. Because: 1. Some costs, like commute time and gas, are fixed per day (and not per working hour), so for the same amount of work hours and salary, you end up losing a couple hours of commute and gas money. 2. On top of it, the vast majority of employees prefer 5 8-hour workdays instead of 6 6.7-hour workdays. In practice though, it’s gonna be even worse. Assuming the same work ethics and mentality from employers continues as before (and we have no reason to assume otherwise)what’s gonna happen is this: 3. You’ll end up working 7-7:15 hours per day, instead of the exact 6:40 per day. It’s very common in Greece to be asked to overstay 30’ or even 1hour (**unpaid**), to “cleanup” or to “take care of a 5-minute task”. There’s no chance in hell people will be allowed to leave at 40’ past, on the clock. The shift timetables will be rounded up. And since this unpaid overtime goes per shift, given now you’ll get 6 shifts instead of 5, You’ll end up in total **losing about 2-3 hours of unpaid work, per week, at minimum.** Overall, Greek workers now are getting fucked even by legitimate employers that play by the books and follow the law, **on top** of the abusive ones that don’t follow the laws and pay under the table. The law legalised a formerly illegal, abusive employer tactic, changing the terms of the game into something that is deeply unpopular with workers. Resulting in a **net loss** of worker rights. That’s why workers *hate* this law and protest against it, while employers *love* it and celebrate its passing. And how unpopular it is with workers, is beyond doubt. All major worker bodies, unions, federations, as well as the vast majority of workers are very *unhappy* and deeply *dissatisfied* with this law. And this is a fact, as you can see from their statements, their protests, their strikes, their announcements. Meanwhile, employers **love** it and are basking how it’s gonna “increase productivity”, “improve competitiveness” and “promote entrepreneurship”. This tells you all you need to know.
Question: will employers in Greece try to do the same 100% illegal methods but with a 7th day by any chance?
My personal guess is that employers that took that path before, will continue paying under the table and keep it illegal. Because they peas less tax and benefits (like pension contributions, insurance, etc.) this way. If they ever wanted to be legal, they could have done so already, I don’t think this law changes anything for them. But yes, what you’re saying is also a possibility. (And something that already was happening for some workers, especially tourism workers during high season, ie working two extra days “under the table”).
Is this supposed to be a good thing?
If you're a boss, yes. If you're anyone else, no.
Idk if a burned out, unloyal employee is a good thing.
The unemployment is so high that they will probably find another person willing to do ~~slave~~ labour.
No, this is bad.
It's evolving, just backwards.
Live your myth in Greece! 🏛️
*One day a week
The solution to an aging population and a brain drain is to go in the opposite direction and improve the lives of younger people so that they are less stressed and more likely to have kids, but sure work your population even more and make them even more stressed.
It’s far too late for these kinds of solutions. Governments ignored falling birth rates first decades, now damage control is the only thing that can be done. People sounded the alarm but the importance of getting children was scoffed at in popular discourse and was conflated with sexist ideology. This is just a consequence which has been warned about.
Its absolutely BS. Germany has a 6 day working week. Most people just would never agree to it thats why most people work 40h on 5 days. But its allowed to work 48h on 6 days.
Considering Germany has some of the lowest actual working hours per week in all of Europe thanks to the prevalence of part-time contracts it is hilarious that the letter of our law is technically still written for the six day workweek of times long past. Watch people’s brains wrinkle while you explain to them that the legal minimum for PTO per year is 20 days, not 24 as stated in the law …
I do not know a single person in Germany that has only 24 days, let alone 20. Everybody asks for 30 days and in a majority of cases get it.
> I do not know a single person in Germany that has only 24 days, let alone 20. Everybody asks for 30 days and in a majority of cases get it. 30 is far from the default but indeed very common. As often, the legal minimum is far from the average case. Which is kind of the point as it’s supposed to set that absolute lowest bound still considered acceptable.
Wait my bad , I kept thinking that it would be downright dystopian to start shortening weekends (or lengthening the work week) , so my brain had automatically kept correcting it to a 4-day work week. I cannot fathom having to spend 6 out of 7 days a week working.
The sad thing is people working 6 or 7 days was already a thing in some sectors, now government makes it "official" for everyone.
According to our wise government, the best way to combat brain drain and a declining population is to ....force those that can stay and have kids work more! Yeah! Brilliant!
Some employer somewhere maybe: "What do you mean, you can't work eight days per week? You're a failure!"
...after 10 years of economic crisis now this I'm done I'm packing my bags
omg thats the opposite direction I wanna go!
In solidarity with all of the workers who have to go through this. Five already sometimes sucks so hard because hardly shit gets ever done if you want to have a live besides work and get proper sleep. I hope that gets abandoned sooner then installed.
Ok so, I have been researching this for a week, so let's talk details. Zeroth of, I do not under any circumstances support this move for no job or sector. We should be moving to a 4 day or 36 hour week, like everyone else. This is a disgrace and an absolute failure on the government's part. Mitsotakis calling this "pro-worker" is a liar, and it is clear that this man has not once had to work as an actual employee. First of, the 6-day work week is not for everyone. You read the headlines, you might assume so. The reality is that this only encompasses private sectors that require 24/7 service. That means your regular office worker or shop worker or farmer will not be affected. ~~This specifically targets tourism sectors~~ , and accidentally targets tech support sectors. ~~It importantly leaves out public service sectors, meaning that if you need to file your taxes or pick up your mail on a Saturday, eat shit and take the day off.~~ EDIT: As comments bellow, the tourism sector seems to be excluded, and as a result anything that follows on this comment about how this change affects it is incorrect. I apologize for my mistake. Secondly, there are no contracts that would be 6-day work weeks even in those sectors. Rather, you sign a 5-day work week contract, and on "periods of increased needs" your employer and you agree that you work a 6th individual work day of no more than 8 hours that has to be on Saturday, and that individual day needs to be set by the employer on Ergani, the Greek Bureau of Work System. That of course is completely disconnected from the reality of work in the private sector, as agreeing to it will rarely be the choice of the employee. Once the day is set on Ergani, the emplyee is supposed to work it. Not appearing would be grounds for termination. This is on top of an additional law that allows up to 2 hours of unpaid overtime a day, leading to effectively a 58-hour week (and remaining to 50-hours for the excluded sectors). And there-in lies the game. This is without a doubt yet another "unpaid overtime" law. An already huge problem in Greece, only now even more stacked towards the employer. In theory, this would/could buck the the trend of tourism sector jobs being "10-hour 7-day work for 8-hour 5-day of pay", which is a huge problem in the whole of islandic Greece. By alleviating the cost of "work" for the employers they expect less unpaid work for the employees and thus better pay for them and higher taxes for the government. I really doubt that's going to actually come to pass.
We also have a 6 day working week?
Greeks already work too many hours, this is insane
Now hear me out: how about a week-long working week? It just never ends. Work 365 days a year. Infinite productivity hack. Your working 'week' begins when you enter the labor force and ends only when you get unemployed, retire or die. If you never change jobs or never retire the working 'week' will become a working life we're going to give you a medal or paint some other fantastic participation trophy on your grave. So productive. Much wow. /s
Time to burn down some yacht
Saturday is just for errands and cleaning, and then on Sunday the pre-Monday dread sets in. Two days are not enough! Let alone one.
Basically, the government knows that employers exploit workers and break the law, so they made it legal so that they can get tax money from the extra pay. The oligarchs get more freedom to exploit and the government gets more money to funnel to friends Win-win!
One of the previous posts a lot of Greek bros said most of them already work 6 days. It's just sad that's not how you fix things.
Private sector is ruthless. It’s the same in Turkey if you’re not working a gov job. I guess Greece is now extending this 6 day work week to the gov employees too.
They will not dare to make any obvious changes, they are just sweetening the pill right now. They are mostly ignoring this law here in the media, as if nothing will change and it doesn't for now. But they have managed to open the road, that was their goal, for the workers to get used to the abandonment of their rights. Like with the abolition of the collective work contracts during the financial crisis. So not right now, but in the future if we are idiots enough to vote them again (I won't hold my breath that we won't, 41% last time 🫣), they will extend it and in general play as they wish with our time and lives.
Oh now that makes more sense. Also in turkey they sometimes expect you to come on Sunday as well. If you don't you will be the first one to get fired. I can only imagine Greek bros experiencing the same.
Why stop there? Make it 7, make it 8 days/week /s
Massive exodus of young people incoming in 1,2,3...
Greek employers are extremely creative when interpreting labour laws. I expect Greeks to work 8 day weeks in 6 day contracts for no extra pay.
Holy fuck .. rip greece
Disgusting.
Hopefully the last, and hopefully they revert this. It's such a bad image for the country. Who would ever wanna live there?
Workers rights bitches!
"Labor unions and political analysts have sharply criticized the move." The labor unions should have not even allowed it to get that far. I hope the Greek youth will storm the streets.
Dick heads.
How to kill a country
The 1960s future of a 3 day work week after seeing the incredible productivity boom of automation, and now of potential AI on top of it. > Introduce completely unchecked, unfettered, capitalistic greed into the equation. Now back to 6+ work days while sending literal children to work factories for pliable and cheap labor. Truly the progressive vision of the 20th century has come to pass.
We're regressing instead of progressing. We should push for 4 days wortime, not 6 ffs.
Fuck that.
what the fuck is going on
With 2 days I'm barely able to enjoy them. I'm already tired and want to relax the first day and by the second you're in work the next day.
This is a backwards move…
Wtf
The headline sounds like an innovation but hear me out Greece: thats a step backwards in time and not a new innovation. Its dusty and rotten.
Is Greece making extra efforts to push the youth away to other EU countries?
They’re evolving… but backwards.
Never go full retard!
You know what they say, work sets you free! Oh..
These are the consequences of the so called "plan to rescue Greece". The MOU's that were forced upon my country with extreme taxation, austerity, cuts from salaries, pensions, public services and the theft of public as well as private property from our lending "partners" that send us back to the stone age. So much for Europe solidarity.
More horrific legislation by our neoliberal government lol.
Decreasing even just an hour from the workday: Employers - we will literally go bankrupt and never recover from this. 6 day work week with mentally broken workers, chronic fatigue settling in and high turnover rates resulting in a serious decrease in knowledge and skills: Employers - our plan is genius but y’all are too lazy to put in the work so we’ll import non-EU ~~slaves~~ grateful, loyal workers who can appreciate our generosity. People then vote the far-right populists. Employers: Goddamn woke sexo-marxists, what have you done!
Slavery, slavery everywhere...
It supposed to be 4 days
How else are the rich people gonna stay rich if the working class doesnt pick up the pace /s
"Studies show people are more productive and output higher quality work with 4 day weeks" *Greece introduces 6 day work week* Greece: "Am I doing it right?"
Fuck that, in Australia there are some trails, and some businesses have already adopted a 4 day week. Productivity up and happier workers to boot
Meanwhile UK companies are testing 4 days work week, with [many of them making it permanent](https://fortune.com/europe/2024/02/22/most-u-k-companies-that-took-part-in-the-worlds-largest-4-day-workweek-trial-have-decided-to-keep-it-permanently/)... If you are from UK, you can [petition for Company to join the 4 day program](https://startups.co.uk/news/flexible-working-request/).
Think its due to what sectors in the economy are dominant. Greece has a lot of tourism and a longer work week makes some sense I guess since that sector is active 7 days a week. For more industry or tech oriented longer hours dont make sense as the average productiveness falls each hour.
It is time for 996
Malaka
Fecking arseholes.
Fuck right off
Who are the lazy ones now Germany? Also who the fuck did you vote for Greece?
fuck that
*reintroduce
more days but no one mentioned more money
"The pro-business government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said the measure is both “worker-friendly” and “deeply growth-orientated.” It is designed to **support employees not being sufficiently compensated for overtime work** and to help crack down on the problem of undeclared labor" So if this move is about protecting workers from wage theft why not you know make it harder to steal wages from workers working overtime?
factual false in germany we already have the 6 day working week for a long time already
Not only they have the worst mandatory military service regime in place ,that pays draftees like 10euro per month for like a year or even more(right?). And now adding 6day working week when you out of that service, fuckin hell what an absolute travesty for younger people all of this is.