Athens is under pressure to introduce a six-day working week as part of the stiff terms for the country’s second bailout. The supervisory “troika,” which involves the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund is insisting on radical labour market reforms from minimum wages to overtime limits to flexible working hours. The “troika” is scrutinizing Greece’s compliance with the terms of the bailout and will issue a verdict that will determine whether Greece is ultimately allowed to remain in the single currency union.
In a letter from the “troika” Greek finance and labour ministries have been ordered to extend the working week into the weekend (which would probably involve Saturday). It says, “Measure: increase flexibility of work schedules: increase the number of maximum workdays to six days per week for all sectors.”
The letter reveals the detail of eurozone intrusion into a national system and culture of work widely seen outside Greece as dysfunctional. It continues, “Increase flexibility of work schedules; set the minimum daily rest to 11 hours; delink the working hours of employees from the opening hours of the establishment; eliminate restrictions on minimum/maximum time between morning and afternoon shifts; allow the consecutive two-week leave to be taken anytime during the year in seasonal sectors.”
“Unemployment is too high, and policies are needed to prevent it from becoming structural,” the letter says. It also calls for non-wage labour costs to be lowered, employers’ welfare contributions to be cut, and deregulation of the labour market. The instructions also call for the national labour inspectorate to be radically reformed and put under European supervision.
The Greek government of Antonis Samaras is pleading for more time to implement the austerity demanded in the last two bailouts including cuts of a further €11.6bn. But that would require yet another bailout. And there is little appetite for more rescue funds across the eurozone, meaning that Greece may ultimately be sacrificed.
The Greek working week was out of character with the rest of Europe, which often includes Saturday work. Extending the workweek into the weekend as a means of helping the economy would bring Greece into line with other nations. While it appears that the Greek expansion of the working week may not actually require work on the Sabbath, it brings it one step closer to the type of demands found in the following statement.
“Amid the prevailing error and superstition, many, even of the true people of God, became so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath, they refrained from labor also on the Sunday. But this did not satisfy the papal leaders. They demanded not only that Sunday be hallowed, but that the Sabbath be profaned; and they denounced in the strongest language those who dared to show it honor. It was only by fleeing from the power of Rome that any could obey God’s law in peace.” The Great Controversy, page 65.
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