“There is no 6-day work”, emphasized the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Niki Kerameos, speaking to SKAI and the show Today.

As she said, “if there was a 6-day working day, if suddenly Greece had switched from a five-day to a six-day Saturday, which happened to us, everywhere you looked, people would be working.”

He underlined that what exists is the fact that the possibility of an “extraordinary shift” has been instituted in certain categories of businesses. That is, businesses that work 24 hours a day 7 days a week such as refineries, factories and industries. He noted that it is not enough for them to operate 24 hours a day, but they must also have rolling shifts and that even in these cases not all employees fall under, for example, in an industry that operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, the accounting office does not operate 24 hours a day 24 hours, so only those in production and only if specifically provided for this category.

Mrs. Kerameos made it clear that this “extraordinary shift” cannot be done every Saturday, stressing that this would be “abusive, illegal”.

“The six-day period indicates a frequency that does not exist,” she noted. He said that this is a measure that comes to combat undeclared and implied work. “In other words, instead of these people working with three and sixty, as long as these cases exist, as long as there is an agreement, as long as there is everything we have said, they are paid much more. How much; Plus 40% if that emergency shift is on a Saturday, plus 115% of the daily wage they would get if that day is a Sunday or a holiday, plus 140% if it’s a Sunday, a holiday and it’s at night. So we are talking about a measure that does not concern the country as a whole. It concerns a specific category of businesses that operate continuously,” he said indicatively.

Mrs. Kerameos noted that when the conditions for this are not met, there is exclusion from the system.

Can I say no?

To the question of whether an employee can say no, he stated that: “If the employer comes and tells you that you will work every Saturday, you will also work an emergency shift, the answer is of course and you can say no, there is abuse in this and it is legal for you to say it is not illegal for the employer to tell you that you must work every Saturday”. He emphasized that in this particular case the employee is protected (from abusive treatment by the employer).

Regarding how this “extraordinary shift” was covered until it was established, Mrs. Kerameos stated that a fine was imposed on the company that did it and the employee did not receive the wages she mentioned. “There was no protective framework”, he pointed out.

Digital job card

Regarding the extension of the digital work card, the Minister of Labor and Social Security stated that “it is a very important tool for the protection of the employee. To record the actual working time and to ensure that the employee is paid for this actual working time. So what is he going to fight? Undeclared work and declared work. That is, working for 8 hours and getting paid for 4, this is implied work.”

She said that the Labor Inspectorate conducts constant checks that the fines are too severe in this case. He noted that the measure started in 2022, first in large supermarkets, in banks. “Now, January 1, 2024, a very big step was taken. The pilot application in industry and retail has begun. By January 2024, the measure applied to 150,000 workers. 600,000 workers have been added to industry and retail since the first day it entered the pilot phase. So we reached 750,000. From July 1st we went to universal application in industry and retail. So that’s where we are right now as we speak now and from September in the fall our goal is to start piloting in tourism and catering. We are already in discussions with representatives of the sector,” he said.

He added that he considers the dialogue very important. “We must listen to the representatives, the particularities of each area. Not all spaces are the same. Supermarkets are one, banks are another, industry is another, tourism and restaurants are another. That is why we have already started in-depth discussions with representatives of the tourism and catering industries to see specifics, to solve practical issues and to go from autumn to a pilot application, bearing in mind that there are large hotel units that will close in October for the season. We want to catch up with them, to familiarize them a little with the measure. We don’t want to catch anyone hexapin. Equally, we want there to be sufficient time for everyone to familiarize themselves, to ask questions”, he pointed out indicatively.

Mrs. Kerameos underlined that she has asked the services to start interactive seminars on how the card works, to receive questions from employees, from businesses, to answer questions and to constantly improve the framework and instructions.