AGAINST THE 13-HOUR WORKDAY AND FLEXIBLE WORKING HOURS BILL
RALLY ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 7:30 PM, AT SYNTAGMA SQUARE
WITHDRAW THE NEW ANTI-LABOUR MONSTROUS BILL NOW
EVERYONE IN THE UNIONS – EVERYONE IN THE STRUGGLE FOR A 7-HOUR DAY, 5-DAY, 35-HOUR WORK WEEK
FOR SUBSTANTIAL WAGE INCREASES AND COLLECTIVE LABOR AGREEMENTS
WE ESCALATE THE STRUGGLE WITH THE ORGANIZATION OF A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE
The government’s disgraceful slogans about “fair work for all” and “support for workers” cannot hide the reality: they are dragging us one step closer to the Middle Ages.
With this bill, the government legalizes and expands employer impunity and arbitrariness. It deepens the jungle of insecurity at work, opening the way for greater work intensification with the sole aim of boosting the profits of big business groups.
It strips away even the formal ability of unions to collectively protect and represent workers on issues of working time, making “the worker’s consent” superior to collective bargaining and agreements.
Specifically, the government grants employers the ability to:
- Keep workers at work up to 13 hours per day, adding to what already exists today: the 13-hour day split across multiple employers.
- Impose overtime on workers already working on rotating schedules.
- Increase or decrease working hours even within the same week, according to business needs. The “arrangement” of working time is now limitless, ranging from one week to a whole year, renewed every year, according to employer demands.
- Break up schedules with “flexible arrival” of up to 120 minutes from the official start or end of shifts, while excluding “preparation time” from paid hours (30 minutes before and after shifts in industry, 10 minutes in tourism and catering).
- Hire workers with “two-day contracts,” even minors!
- Split annual leave into four five-day segments throughout the year.
The government lies:
- Lie 1: It claims workers choose to work 13-hour days “if they wish to.” In reality, instead of raising wages and reducing working hours, it forces workers to labor endless hours just to survive.
- Lie 2: It claims workers’ consent is required for schedule changes and that they are protected from dismissals. In reality, with such insecurity and low wages, employer intimidation will thrive. Workers will not be able to refuse under threat of dismissal, while bosses will find “other reasons” to fire at will.
- Lie 3: It claims to protect against workplace accidents. With 13-hour days, 78-hour weeks, and 6-day work schedules, accidents, deaths, and injuries will multiply.
- Lie 4: It claims that a four-day/ten-hour week with unpaid overtime allows parents a whole day with their children. Only a sick mind could believe children need their parents once a week and not every day. By abolishing continuous summer leave (10 days in a row), they even deprive families of the ability to take holidays together.
No sacrifices for the profits of corporations and the warmongers
This is the infamous “European normality” and “rule of law” praised by the parties of New Democracy, PASOK, and SYRIZA, the same parties that have voted for and implemented every anti-labour law of the last 15 years. These are the EU directives that require only an 11-hour break between shifts, effectively legalizing 13-hour workdays.
Workers cannot expect anything from the government’s so-called “Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) basket,” which in reality means extending the 13-hour day and “arranging” working hours year-round. Meanwhile, workers will bear the burden of the war economy, intensified militarization, and Greece’s deeper involvement in Euro-Atlantic imperialist plans and wars.
Only corporations will profit, with new tax breaks and privileges, while another September becomes a nightmare for working families, struggling with bills, rents, debts, foreclosures, and taxes. At the same time, health, education, and other vital needs are further commodified.
The stance of the social democrat parties of PASOK and SYRIZA is outrageous. They suddenly remember the abolition of the 8-hour workday, but they are accomplices. Together with New Democracy, they abolished the 13th and 14th salary for public servants and pensions. They implemented the law that bears the name of their ministers (Vroutsis–Achtsioglou). They tried to find “positive elements” in Hatzidakis law, with PASOK voting in favor of 70% of its articles and SYRIZA for 50%. They even undermined the strike against the Georgiadis law by directing their people in the unions to vote it down.
The General Confederation of Workers (GSEE) leadership majority must also be set aside. It backed the deregulation of the 8-hour workday and other collective gains, acting in line with the parties of capital. Today it undermines workers’ struggles by promoting “social dialogue” and class collaboration aligned with EU directives and the strategy of capital.
The experience of the last 15 years shows clearly: there is no way forward for workers within this brutal policy of exploitation and war. Not in the hands of old or new so-called saviors, who all, without exception, have supported anti-labour policies.
The road of organization and struggle is the road to change
We call on Labor Centers, Federations, unions, and all workers to rise up. We demand the withdrawal of this monstrosity. The government must not dare to bring it to Parliament. We escalate with a nationwide, all-workers’ strike.
Only the power of organized struggle, focused on our modern needs, can bring positive developments and victories. We fight to live with dignity, with rights, enjoying the fruits of our labor.
We must strengthen our struggle through our unions, demanding:
- Immediate withdrawal of the anti-labour monstrosity now! Stable jobs with rights – 7-hour day, 5-day week, 35-hour work week for all!
- Abolition of working-time “arrangements,” all forms of flexible employment, and unpaid overtime. Full protection of Sunday as a rest day.
- Wage increases and Collective Labor Agreements. Restoration of the 13th and 14th salary for public servants, and the 13th and 14th pension. Restoration of national collective bargaining for the General Collective Agreement.
- Restoration of gains such as seniority allowances, extension of contracts, and the principle of the most favorable agreement.
- Money for wages, pensions, health, and education, not for the slaughterhouses of war and the profits of the few! Immediate measures against high prices and protection of the people’s income.
- No involvement of our country in the war carnage! Close all NATO death bases. Bring back the ships and military personnel from foreign missions.
- Protection of people’s homes! Full legal protection of first residences of working families, ban on foreclosures.
RALLY ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 7:30 PM, SYNTAGMA SQUARE, ATHENS
