Analysis
One salary not enough? Far-right Greek government says work 13 hours a day
‘Instead of wages increasing, hours are increasing. On paper it’s 13, but you also have to count the commute time. In practice, they are asking us to leave home at eight in the morning and come back at ten o’clock at night.’
If one salary isn’t enough to make ends meet, just work longer – up to 13 hours a day. This is the recipe imposed by Greece’s ruling Nea Dimokratia party. Thanks to the votes of the conservative majority, parliament has approved a bill that “legalizes paid slavery,” as denounced by the main Greek trade unions.
The new law, authored by Labor Minister Niki Kerameos, stipulates that private sector employees can be employed by the same employer for 13 hours a day (well beyond the standard eight) for up to 37 days per year. This extra work is permitted only through a “voluntary agreement” and will be compensated with a 40% pay increase. The two massive general strikes called this month, and the protests of workers who marched in cities across Greece to oppose the reform, were ignored by the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The widespread debate in the rest of Europe about potentially reducing working hours was likewise ignored.
The government has instead chosen to “jeopardize employees' health, destroying any balance between private and professional life,” denounces the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE). The union argues the law is a gift to businesses facing staff shortages, not just in factories but also in the crucial restaurant and tourism sectors, which account for over 15% of Greece’s GDP.
Before the vote, Syriza’s MPs walked out in protest. “We will not legitimize this monstrous law, which attacks fundamental rights won with the blood of previous generations,” declared the party’s parliamentary spokesperson, Christos Giannoulis.
The labor minister insisted that “the workers themselves have been asking to work for longer hours,” and claimed that those who refuse to work overtime will be protected: they can report any coercion to a “special hotline” at the ministry. But it is unlikely that workers will dare to make that call.
Nea Dimokratia has long worked to erode union rights, which were already weakened since the debt crisis. In recent years, it has passed laws allowing at-will dismissals within the first year, enabling the replacement of collective bargaining agreements with individual contracts and allowing a seven-day work week. Two years ago, it approved a 13-hour workday, but only if split between two different employers. With Thursday's law, another safeguard has been removed.
It is no secret that many Greeks are forced to juggle multiple jobs just to scrape by. “Our country is a country of the working poor, who work more than the European average but are paid less and cannot make ends meet,” Syriza leader Sokratis Famellos denounced in parliament. According to Eurostat, 20% of Greeks already work more than 45 hours a week (far above the EU average), yet salaries remain among the lowest, and Greek purchasing power is the second-worst in the Union, ahead of only Bulgaria.
“Instead of wages increasing, hours are increasing. On paper it’s 13, but you also have to count the commute time. In practice, they are asking us to leave home at eight in the morning and come back at ten o’clock at night,” said Giorgos Stefanakis of the PAME union. “This means having absolutely no free time for a decent life and being increasingly exhausted. Last year alone, 150 people died on the job.”
Minister Kerameos herself candidly acknowledged that Greeks are forced to work multiple jobs. “Some people today are moving between a first and a second employer on the same day, without earning even half a euro more for the extra time. Instead, we are giving them the opportunity to do what they are already doing, without having to travel between jobs, and with a 40% pay increase,” she claimed. The fact that a Greek worker is forced to work up to 13 hours a day just to survive is apparently not a phenomenon to be combated, but one to be legalized.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/grecia-uno-stipendio-solo-non-basta-parte-la-giornata-lavorativa-di-13-ore on 2025-10-17