• @[email protected]
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        04 months ago

        The thing is in this case, it’s only human suffering. People don’t actually work nonstop all week. Giving them fewer hours over four days means they’re more productive for those days because they’re not dragging out their work to fill the arbitrary 40 hours they have to work for. So companies pay workers the same, but can save money in amenities and office space or whatever by using it less AND have more productive workers. Longer work weeks don’t actually make companies more money (oversimplifying and speaking broadly).

  • @[email protected]
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    04 months ago

    I mean how does the government regulate this even?

    If I was a skilled worker, I’d tell the company I work 5 days or I don’t work for you …

  • @[email protected]
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    05 months ago

    Man, if I still lived in an EU country and the government pulled this shit I’d be making the most of that sweet freedom-of-movement. Way to drive all the skills out of your economy.

      • @[email protected]
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        04 months ago

        Honestly, I always thought it was overrated. Some catchy music, sure, but I don’t think it really holds up otherwise. Maybe the play was better?

    • acargitz
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      4 months ago

      That’s exactly what tens if not hundreds of thousands of young Greeks have done in the last 15 years.

      Greece has a brain drain problem. This ridiculous measure is actually sold by the government as an attempt to address the shortage of certain skilled worker categories. By … incentivizing the few that are left to pack up and leave. In practice, it’s just class warfare.

      The Greek ruling class is a bunch of grifters, landlords, smugglers and gangsters (always have been, since 1830) and they are basically betting on a “recovery” based on cheap labour.

      • fmstrat
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        04 months ago

        A good example of how this is not the case is the UK and Dentists. When Brexit hit and they left the EU (picture if the right in the US had their immigration way), a ton of immigrant Dentists had to leave. It was easy to stay before because of the EU. Now there is a huge shortage of dentists. Surprise surprise.

        • @[email protected]
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          05 months ago

          If you have a child it is more complicated than that. You need starting money to be able to move.

          • @[email protected]
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            05 months ago

            If you had a job that could sustain you and you get a new job within EU that can also sustain you, it’s about as expensive as you would expect a long distance move to be. There’s no system in place as far as I know to block you from getting permanent residency in another EU country because you don’t have starting money. That’s just your inherent responsability to figure out like with any move.

            • @[email protected]
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              04 months ago

              EU countries are allowed to, by Treaty, expel EU citizens who moved there without the means to live there or a job.

              However it’s incredibly rare and there really isn’t any general procedure to do it: each country does it (or not) it’s own way. This tends to be used for people caught sleeping or begging on the streets.

              Further, for countries in the Schengen Area, they don’t even know you’re there unless you register, since you haven’t passed any border controls and thus aren’t in any database as having arrived but not departed.

        • @[email protected]
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          05 months ago

          Got it, that’s all I meant. I thought there were requirements, it’s not just “pack our bags, we’re moving to Germany tomorrow”

          • @[email protected]
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            04 months ago

            If you can afford it, yes you can do this. You are allowed to live and work anywhere in the EU.

            But if you also need a job to feed you, its more difficult if you do not speak the local language and have not learned something useful.

            But from the residency law you absolutely can pack your bag and move to Germany tomorrow as an EU citizen.

          • Bob
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            04 months ago

            That’s almost how I migrated, except I had to give a month’s notice at work and I’d already found an address to register at.

          • @[email protected]
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            4 months ago

            I’ve literally done that inside the EU, though to the UK (back before Brexit) rather than Germany - I flew to London and stayed about a month in a hotel whilst looking for a contract there (I’m a freelancer) and more permanent accommodation.

            Years later I did the same to Germany, though I only stayed 3 months.

            The only requirement is that you either have a job or have the money to pay for the costs of living there (so you can still go without a job, as long as you have the money to pay for a place to stay, food and so on). The reason for the requirement that you can pay your way (either from a job or savings) is because people can’t just move to another EU country to do things like living on the street and begging or living of the local Social Security.

            Some countries also have a requirement that you register after 3 months there (for example, Germany), though it’s not any kind of applying to stay, it’s simply registering as living there. This is usually because there are associated obligations for residents in that country, not just in terms were do you pay tax, but in some countries (for example, Germany and The Netherlands) there are things like mandatory health insurance.

            In practice as an EU citizen, if you have the savings or the kind of job which you can do in 3 month stints or remotely, you absolutely can hop from country to country every 3 months without having to register with anybody (though I’m not sure how taxes would work - I suppose you would pay them in the last country you registered as a Resident).

            If you know the language, if it weren’t for taxes being per country and the rights and duties of Residents being different in different countries (such as the Mandatory Health Insurance for Residents in some countries but not others) hence the requirement to register after 3 months in some countries, the whole thing would be as easy as moving within your own country.

            • @[email protected]
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              04 months ago

              Interesting. So if you have decent work (or remote work), why not just leave the shittier countries and go to the best?

    • @[email protected]
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      04 months ago

      Greece has some port big problems financially that are not going away any time soon. It needs change, it needs exports

  • @[email protected]
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    05 months ago

    employers are permitted to require staff to work up to two unpaid hours per day for a limited period in return for more free time.

    Wow.

    • @[email protected]
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      05 months ago

      I hope this is at least banking that time; you don’t get overtime, but you can use that time later for paid time off.

      • @[email protected]
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        05 months ago

        Still sucks that it could be mandatory. I work in a government job in Australia and we have “Flexible Hours” which means that any time worked under or over the standard 7:30hrs per day counts towards a flex balance. Then we can use the excess flex balance to then taking shorter days or even take a couple days off if we have the balance for it. It works wonders for staff morale and retention.

        • Instigate
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          04 months ago

          Same boat mate - Aussie govt employee myself who has access to flex. Personally I felt it was better when I was working for an NGO and they always gave me the choice between being paid overtime or banking it to flex later. It was nice to get the extra cash when I needed it and extra leave when the time came too. That should be the standard the employee should have the choice between OT or extra leave.

  • mayooooo
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    05 months ago

    That’s how you fuck up. Greece already had insane working hours, that doesn’t seem to be the problem.

  • @[email protected]
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    05 months ago

    Greek employers cannot find the staff they need. Greek coastguard pushes migrants off boats into the sea.

    • @[email protected]
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      04 months ago

      This is a false dichotomy. Employers can’t find the staff they need at the wages they are willing to pay. Immigrants are the scapegoat, not the solution.

      • @[email protected]
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        04 months ago

        For employers it can also be a solution, since you can pay them whatever and trust that they can’t go to the authorities about it or won’t join unions and so on

        • acargitz
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          04 months ago

          Because of European asylum rules. Those migrants have to be processed in their country of entry.

          Also, because they are racist fucks, who are paid to believe that Greece is being invaded.

        • @[email protected]
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          04 months ago

          They can cause issues while transiting through and they are required to give a shit because they’re part of the EU’s outer border control. And they might have fears of some of the migrants staying. I could imagine someone being in the coastguard cares about securing the border too even if there were none of the above issues.

    • @[email protected]
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      04 months ago

      Flawed. What jobs are Greece lacking workers for? Can the said migrants fill those roles while simultaneously getting integrated into the societal norms and customs?

      If yes. Cool.

      If no. Not a solution.

      I don’t agree to the pushing people into the sea. But one problem is not the solution to a different one.

      Quota migrants are the way to go. Human trafficking is bad.

    • @[email protected]
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      04 months ago

      in my shithole country we have %30 unemployment and 6-day work week. Also it’s all slave wages regardless of your degree or experience. It’s a corrupt shithole system that enables itself to keep on staying shit by exploiting poor people and getting the rich richer.

      • acargitz
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        04 months ago

        Um, you’re describing Greece plus or minus some unemployment percentage points.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    05 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    After 15 years of recession and austerity and three rescue packages that came with tough conditions attached, labor in Greece is no longer strictly regulated.

    Collective agreements have been frozen for years, and in many businesses, staff work on the basis of individual employment contracts.

    Making sure that the authorities can do such monitoring tasks effectively is not a priority for the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

    Kazakos is in favor of collective wage agreements, which are, however, being increasingly limited by legislation passed by the ruling conservative New Democracy (ND) government.

    The official reason for the introduction of the six-day work week is that there is a shortage of skilled workers on the Greek labor market.

    The new Greek regulation on the six-day work week and the reduction in arbitration proceedings that comes with it are turning back the clock, Kazakos told DW.


    The original article contains 812 words, the summary contains 145 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • @[email protected]
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    05 months ago

    At least they are legally employing people, in other countries in Southern Europe people work an illegal amount of time but as long as the official contract declares a lower amount of hours it’s fine (neither retirements funds nor taxes nor insurance are paid for the extra time, obviously).

  • Kraiden
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    05 months ago

    Greece re-introduces the 6 day work week… It used to be the standard. Y’know, in the 18th fucking century

        • @[email protected]
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          05 months ago

          I’m 50 and I’ve worked 6-day weeks probably 90% of my working life which started at 14. Even before that, it’s not like you actually got the whole weekend off. I was an honors student, there was always tons of homework.