“We will establish the possibility for a worker to work for multiple employers. He can work 2 eight-hour shifts for 2 different employers and it’s perfectly legal,” Greece Labor Minister Adonis Georgiadis announced on Friday.
The 16-hour work day will be provided for by a bill, which is already ready, Georgiadis said claiming that the bill is based on the “European acquis”!
“We are establishing the possibility for an employee to work for multiple employers, that is, an employee can work two 8-hour days for two different employers and this is absolutely legal,” said the Minister told Skai TV.
In fact, puzzled, the presenter asked if it was two 8-hour days in the same day, so 16 hours a day, and the minister boldly answered “if he wishes, yes, it’s his decision, not mine, from now on we’ll allow him, today we don’t it’s done.”
For the supposedly “voluntary” 16-hour work a day for different employers, Adonis Georgiadis invoked the EU Directive which this bill incorporates, commenting that it is “very nice” that an employee can choose 16-hour work!
Of course, no one wants to work 16 hours a day and only have 8 hours left for rest, entertainment and family time. Poverty is what forces workers to do two and three jobs and work day after day! It is obvious that working 16 hours a day means twice the strain of the worker.
Later on Friday, Minister Georgiadis made a corrective statement saying that an 11-hour pause must be between the two 8-hour shifts. In real math, 8+8+11 = 27 hours. A miracle, a real Greek one! A clown of a minister extends the day by 4 hours!
The bill will provide for dismissal without compensation, reported 902.gr website.
“We are establishing the probationary employee period” and added that for an employee “the contract can be terminated automatically and without compensation in a period of 6 months.”
Worth noting that these employees will pay double income taxes and insurance fees. No incentives like in other EU countries….
At the same time, the bill gives also the option to pensioners who have not gathered the sufficient stamps for a pension at the age of 67 to work until the age of 74!
The Labor Nightmare does not end with active employees but it concerns also pensioners.
“We encourage pensioners to work legally and not illegally.” He said that the bill would provide for the abolition of the penalty and the establishment of a levy in favor of the EFKA of approximately 10% of the additional income. He justified this government choice by citing the needs of the market for workers and that the pensioner should “remain active!”
In a previous interview, the Minister had said that those over 67 will work for public organizations and municipalities.
It’s the crappy pensions that force pensioners to work past the government retirement age of up to 74!
Instead of substantial increases in wages and pensions for workers and those out of work to live in dignity, the government promotes the logic of more labor craft exploitation and strain.
PS big question is: who will hire an employee over the age of 67, when even people over 50 can hardly find a job.
oh lovely, the Poverty Pass
since anyone under the age of about 60 knows for certain that he will never actually get a pension, how about we simply opt out of the pension scheme entirely? i’ll be happy to agree now that i don’t get a pension from them, if it means i also dont keep paying into their corrupt system!
Unfortunately with cost of living increases this will be a reality for alot of people. I still think the best legislation would be to guarantee a pay increase of at least the CPI every year to keep up with the costs of living.
Is it lawful for an employee to work a 16 hour day for one employer ?
If not then it doesn’t make sense to allow it for two employers sharing the same employee.
Does one person having two jobs prevent an unemployed person having a job at all ?
If wages were sufficient, no-one would work any longer than necessary.
Welcome to the Muppet Show.
Surely the allegedly 41% who voted these clowns in (many of them pensioners), knew what was coming. Adonis alone has been a disaster for the last four years. You reap what you sew. Unfortunately the innocent suffer. SHEEPLES ALL.
pensioners or perhaps even ghosts! there are more names on the voter registry rolls (eklogika mhtrwa) than there are people in the country according to the census, and deduct from the population those who are under-age, you have a couple million ghost voters still on the books!
Fascinating that the Labour Minister only now seems to be aware of EU Legislation? The original rules on working time date back to 1993, Directive 1999/63/EC, and were updated in 2003, Directive 2003/88/EC. The rules haven’t been changed since although further clarification based on experience and case law were issued in 2017 and 2023. The basic rules are simple:
“As an employer, you must ensure that your staff does not work more than 48 hours per week on average (including overtime), over a reference period of up to 4 months. Your employees must be given at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest and at least 24 hours of uninterrupted weekly rest every 7 days, over a reference period of 2 weeks.”
A problem arises where someone is working for more than one employer neither of whom know that the person is working for the other. Individually each employer may be applying the rules but the employee is not enjoying the protection the rules are supposed to give. You could argue that is the fault of the employee since neither employer is forcing him to break the rules, they are choosing to do so. IF the government make this legal in Greek law then the government is in breach of the Directive in my opinion.
A typical Greek worker would prefer to have two jobs. One official which is paying insurance to EFKA and one unofficial with no insurance and no tax. Ideally the official job would pay a wage that meant that the worker would not need to pay any tax on it, just insurance. That used to be possible but changes to the tax free allowance make it not viable. Now I would guess that they only want to be paid the maximum that would leave them in the 9 % tax band. The rest they get from the unofficial job paying no tax and insurance.
Correction, wrong ‘sew’,. Should read ‘sow’, but I am sure everyone gets the gist!!
I like the photo of Georgiadis. It’s the smile of a person who has no grasp on reality and whose own reality is one of priviledge and wealth. You’re not related to Boris Johnson by any chance?
The probationary employee period of 6 months is really long. Usually, it’s 3 months. What you get is that employers hire people and fire them after 6 months and then hire new ones. The same happens with temporary contracts. In some countries after a number of those contracts, the employer should offer permanent contracts. So they offer one temporary contract less than required and start a new cycle.