general strike against the government’s plan to introduce 13-hour working days

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At the foot of the Acropolis, in his restaurant, Aristidis Kostakiotis employs 22 people every day, but it is never enough. “Look in the kitchen, it’s piling up, it’s not moving forward, because we need another employee and we can’t find him“, he points out.

A shortage of labor that the government proposes to resolve by authorizing bosses to hire their employees 13 hours a day compared to 8 currently, and this, 37 days a year. The dream for this business manager, even if the law provides that these overtime hours will be paid 40% more. “This will definitely help the employee because they will earn more money to support their family and it will help us overcome the staff shortage“, he explains.

Working more to earn more, its employees are divided. “If I work less the next day, then okay, that will help me, because I have a family. And that day I’ll spend more time with them“, testifies one of them. “No one wants to work 13 hours a day, but the truth is, we have no choice. Because with salaries which are sometimes 600 euros per month, you can only pay your rent“, added another.

Currently being examined in Parliament, this bill arouses the anger of unions and the opposition. Because the Greeks are already among the Europeans who work the most: almost 40 hours per week on average, compared to 36 in the rest of the European Union, and who earn the least: 17,000 euros per year for full time, compared to 38,000 euros on average in Europe.

To make ends meet, many employees already work 13 hours a day, but with different employers, like Maria Delifotti, 30, who, at 11 p.m., has just returned from her double day. Webmaster and teacher, she works up to 55 hours per week for barely more than 1,300 euros per month. Above all, she would have preferred a reevaluation of salaries. “Our income cannot cope with inflation. And this law will only allow one thing: living only to work. And that’s not a life“, she laments.

Some observers fear that instead of solving the labor shortage, this law will have the opposite effect and cause Greek employees to flee in search of better working conditions to other countries in the European Union. During the financial crisis, Greece had already lost half a million citizens, most of whom have still not returned.