Name: How does Greece's government justify a 6-day working week? | DW News
Uploaded: 2024-07-05T09:35:07.000Z
Duration: 5 min 23 s
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Greece has become the first country in the European Union to introduce a six-day working week for some businesses.

The measure applies to firms that provide 24-7 services, or those experiencing an extraordinary workload.

Greece's pro-business government calls the regulation worker-friendly, but it's sparking outrage amongst trade unions, and people on the street don't like it either.

If your employer says, "This is it, take it or leave it," you can't do anything about it.

It will not solve the problem of businesses that don't have enough staff.

The World Health Organization says a 40-hour week is already too much.

In other European countries, the workload is decreasing.

If I saw that six-day work was wearing me down, I would not do it.

I prioritize my mental health, not money.

Journalist Anthe Karasava joins us from Athens.

On paper, Greece's economic growth is sound.

So how is the government justifying this move?

Well, actually, this is somewhat of a paradox, because companies across the globe are actually toying with the idea of actually limiting and shortening work hours and working weeks.

But the government here says that it's introducing this new labor scheme of a 48-hour working week to boost productivity, as it calls it,

and this because, A) because of Greece's shrinking population and ailing, woefully bad demographics,

and B) because of a severe shortage in skilled workers.

Greece has been facing a terrible decline in its demographics.

The prime minister has called it a ticking time bomb, in fact.

And what has simply exacerbated the situation in recent years has been a massive flight, around 500,000 skilled, young, well-educated Greeks who fled the country at the height of a financial crisis here, a decade-long crisis.

And the government has not been able to woo them back.

So this is how it's ultimately justifying the reason for going ahead with this scheme.

Because it seems just ridiculous that, OK, we have a shrinking population and fewer skilled workers, so we'll make the few that we have work harder, rather than attracting more back to the country.

Well, there have been trials and tested runs of four-day work weeks in other parts of Europe and abroad.

Germany, Japan, South Africa, for example, have tried it, and it's tested, and it has proven effective.

In fact, there is no substantive proof, and there haven't been any strong, credible professional voices to come out and support this scheme.

In fact, any kind of professionals that I've been hearing, at least in the past few days, are labor experts from abroad, for example, in the UK, that are raising a critical eye at this scheme.

So is there any support for the measure amongst people, amongst normal working people?

The government must have known that this would be a hated move.

It is a hated move, and it is considered a barbaric one against, you know, trade unions are saying that it is effectively eroding rights that Greek workers have,

and that the government effectively is playing to the hands of big money and big corporations.

And it is also counterintuitive in the sense that it is allowing, for example, pensioners, the right to continue working in their jobs rather than making way for fresh blood to come in.

But at the same time, if the government, the government is simply saying that if it doesn't have the skilled personnel, then this is the best that it can ultimately come up with.

So it will be facing more and more opposition from locals, and there are very few right now who are actually supporting it.

Thanks for talking us through that, Anthe.

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How does Greece's government justify a 6-day working week? | DW News

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