We grew up with 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. The next generations, as everything indicates, will have to remember the 9 hours, the 10 hours or even the… 13 hours a day, and even worse, they will probably be left with the… 53 hours of work week!
Unfortunately, the official addition of the sixth working day, accompanied by all the corresponding measures that have been taken by the Government over the last three years, lead us to a work week that can reach up to 53 hours.
In any case, the five-day and 40-hour workdays are not being abolished. But the interventions that are being made are so great that we should probably forget about them until further notice. Of course, there is the compromise of Article 167 of the Civil Code, which still saves us, but for how long? It states that the weekly working hours of employees cannot exceed, for a maximum period of four months, 48 hours on average, including overtime. But even so, it is understood that the burden, especially when we refer to industrial workers, is great, very great.
And since the human factor must be the first priority, how many in the government have considered whether workers can handle working for four months, more than 48 hours a week? Let us not forget that Greece recorded a new record low for workplace accidents in 2023. The risk of fatigue causing tragedy is not only real, but also completely quantifiable, with 189 deaths in the workplace last year.
But let’s see what happened until the sixth business day entered our lives with force.
Based on current legislation:
a) In the six-day working regime, the contractual working day is six hours and forty minutes. This is how the 40-hour week is calculated. However, all eight hours per day are considered legal hours, i.e. 48 hours per week.
b) In the five-day work regime, the contractual working hours are eight hours per day and 40 hours per week. However, nine hours per day and 45 hours per week are considered legal working hours. In other words, it was permitted to exceed the maximum daily working limit by one hour without this being considered overtime.
Since the sixth working day is also allowed in companies with five working days, as long as they declare that they have a sudden increase in their production volume, they must have an eight-hour working day. So, suddenly, the 53-hour working week was created with glory and honor!
The goal is to enable companies to better respond to their production volume. In other words, to overcome the risk of not having time to promote their production to the end consumer. Something like this is certainly problematic and limits the growth rate of a company and, by extension, of the entire economy. But is intensifying the work of existing staff a solution? Why can’t the company find additional staff to meet its needs?
The constant question over the last two years has been how companies will be able to fill the vacancies that come their way. Various surveys show (reasonably) that employers are worried, at a Stalinist rate (over 80%), that they are unable to attract new talent and are struggling to find workers with the skills needed to meet their needs. But that is exactly where the State should focus!
Rush to help in practice, so that new talents are produced and workers’ skills are improved and their connection with the production line (i.e. companies) improves. This way, not only would it not require more working hours per day or week, but the country could follow the European “line” of four working days, with the same income! Pilot programs have already started in Great Britain, France, Belgium and other countries.
But here we prefer the “easy solution” of intensifying work. Once again, the country is choosing the wrong path and will pay the price.