Greece’s new 6-day workweek law takes effect, bucking a trend | An employee who must work on a sixth day would be paid 40% overtime, according to the new law.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/05/nx-s1-5027839/greece-six-day-workweek-law
Greece’s new 6-day workweek law takes effect, bucking a trend | An employee who must work on a sixth day would be paid 40% overtime, according to the new law.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/05/nx-s1-5027839/greece-six-day-workweek-law
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From the article: Greece enacted a new employment law this week that lays out a six-day workweek — at a time when dozens of other countries are increasingly seeing positive results from experiments with four-day workweeks.
Law 5053/2023, passed by parliament last fall, says an employee cannot work more than 8 hours on the additional day, according to the official [Government Gazette](https://www.et.gr/api/Download_Small/?fek_pdf=20230100158). The employee would be paid 40% overtime for the sixth day’s wages.
Workers in Greece have been sharply critical of the change, saying the last thing they need in an era of rising cost-of-living expenses is to be on the hook to work an extra day each week.
The new system allows employers to decide unilaterally whether a worker should come in on a sixth day. It leaves intact rules that allowed the option of a six-day workweek, in which employees work 6.5 hours for a total of 40 hours weekly, as Greek public broadcaster ERTNews reports.
Why shift to 6 days of work?
The government is giving multiple reasons.
In one explanation, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ administration says that clearing the way to make six days of work mandatory was necessary due to “the twin perils of a shrinking population and shortage of skilled workers,” according to The Guardian, which cites statements from when the legislation was adopted last year.
The government also says that setting formal rules about a six-day workweek would fight the phenomena of undeclared work and also increase the income of employees, according to a message from the Labor Ministry in late June.
And greek society just accepted this? I would just not come on saturday. Fuck 6 days of work. Never.
This is an inversion of the trend on most european countries, no wonder greeks are leaving their country _en masse_
So wait there was no legal framework to work 6 days, that is it?
This is what all the commotion was about something we had for decades in other nations?
Well, the Greeks ARE known for taking it in the ass, so…
I saw a news article posted with the headline including ” Is Canada next?”. Which was clear clickbait, we’re nowhere near to reaching that point or accepting that point, on the contrary we have a glut of available workers right now and it’s hard for people to find jobs.
I don’t see how the leaders in Greece see this is in any way a sustainable move. I understand there’s difficulties with the number of workers, and productivity when people are working (Which in several countries has supposedly been going down… Though I’m not sure I necessarily agree given the benefits of technology on productivity…).
The majority of the voting public are going to clearly be against the 48-hour work week, or 6 days of work at 6.5 hours which is awful, worst case scenario for most people, And the potential economic side effects include individual workers taking home higher pay, resulting in a rising cost of living as purchasing power drives inflation.
What a shit show. Greece seems to have been going down the tubes really hard for the last 10 or 15 years.
This has been the law in Ontario, Canada since the year 2000.
Employers can require you to work 48 hours per week with a maximum of 8 hours per day and are only required to give you 24 hours off per week.
Overtime at 1.5x is only paid after 44 hours, which would mean on the 6th day you would receive 4 hours regular pay and 4 hours OT pay, which is only 25% OT for the entire 6th day as compared to Greece’s 40% for the entire day.
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They can even have you work 12 days straight as long as they give you 48 hours off in a row.
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[https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/hours-work](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/hours-work)