How does Greece's government justify a 6-day working week? American Reacts

American Guy Reacts to How does Greece's government justify a 6-day working week? | DW News

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#americanguyreacts #americanreacts #itscharlievest #reactionchannel #reactionvideo #americanreaction #reactionvideos #greece #work #labor #economy

[floatingpointerror]

in greece we have a habit of not holding politicians accountable during elections

[Jacqueline_Thijsen]

Working extra hours actually decreases productivity since rest is needed if you need to be actually productive. It sounds paradoxical, but it's been proven many times.

[lanasorter]

Since 2010 every year a very big amount of young people leaving Greece for another country. Most of them scientists, doctors...etc.

[DarkModulator]

Here in Greece after the crisis, our basic wages are on the verge of real povery and before the last 2 years increases it was below.

Companies that worked 24/7 was able to have 6days without this new law. I have worked like this and I know.
This law gives the companies to mandate legally a 6day workweek, even when your contract says 5. And you cant refuse, this is the most undemocratic law for workers.

This will backfire because not all want to work 6 days, like myself. Dont want to work overtime.
But the austerity measures and wild increases in prices (due to the right political party) makes people to work 2 jobs to make ends meet, or work 6 days.

Burnout and fatigue will make things worse, if I am forced to work six days, I will prefered to be fired (I will not quit and lose the money ) and find another job.

With such unemployment, people would think why they dont hire new people. But more employers in Greece are shit.

After the law, only 1/6 companies have been in the new legislation, 5/6 where cut off because they are not entitled to be.
Bosses threaten people to work 6 days and even for free because they are not in the legislation.

[ohcjghg]

I am greek. I live in Greece. I couldn't agree more 😊

[xronisalmpo]

first greeks work six to seven days a week for decades except the public sector and goverment officials so this measure is a laughing law for us already working six days and seven days also we work 8 to 12 hours so again we laugh and cry about it its ridiculous but the real issue is that some people vote idiots that have never worked before outcome current day greece owing 400 billion and third class citizens after every humiliation at this point

[iaolarapsa]

Thanks for your opinion on this descrace...once again top...✌

[zxnwfyp]

Greek politics is always a satire, hurts me to admit as a Greek. Moved away 5 years ago

[miamonan]

Apparently it only applies to businesses which operate on a 24-hour basis and is optional for workers, who will get paid an extra 40% for the overtime they do, and a 115% bump if the added hours fall on a holiday.
I couldn’t find out exactly which type of businesses they were though.

[Howtofewithlove]

Wow in my country they are talking about introducing 4day workweek

[jpfoto]

If there is a kack of skilled people, what are compagnies going to do if they work 5 days instead of 6,
Fire them.
Than they have no workers at all becouse of laber shortige.

[witthyhumpleton]

This comment is going to probably end up being longer, because it's a complicated situation, I am terribly sorry for that.

First is this, the things mentioned in the video are obviously true. Increasing the workload is very bad, because it simply increases the braindrain in Greece, it is already relatively easy for Greeks, as EU citizens, to move to other countries with better working conditions or pay, the policy does very little other than squeeze those who cannot afford to leave, and Greek people already work many more hours than the European average, in fact, if I remember correctly, they work the most hours out of all EU countries, they are simply less productive because of lacking infrastructure and mechanisation.

Now, I want to relativise this a little bit, because it is easy to bash the Greek government for being dumb and screwing workers, which they doing, don't get me wrong.
I think it is good to understand why they are doing it though, what brought them to this situation, and why the opposite path isn't actually possible.

Greece has gone through a very difficult time recently, in fact a lot of European countries, especially southern European countries like Spain, Italy and Greeece have, ever since the financial crash in 2008.
Back then, there were a couple of movements in Europe about how to move forward and what to do. In the end, Germany as the strongest economy in Europe influenced a lot of the policy, which was unfortuantely a terrible mistake, a perfect storm if you will.
Let me preface this, I am a German, I am not talking crap about Germany from the outside, but Germany prides itself on fiscal responsibility. This means low government spending and a low debt to GDP ratio.
These are things politicians often talk about, but Germany takes this to the next level, writing it directly into the constitution around the turn of the millenium, and influencing EU directives to act similarly.

Now, why am I talking about this, why is it terrible for other countries, and what does it have to do with Greece?
Easy, Germany benefitted massively from the Euro, as the German currency before was much stronger than the Euro before, this meant it's exports became cheaper abroad. This allowed Germany to cut government spending massively on the cost of other European countries with weaker currencies. Essentially, Germany won because it is an export focussed economy and it's currency became weaker. Many other countries in Europe did not receive this benefit, while Germany did, it was being subsidised by the other European countries using the Euro, so to speak.
Because this worked in this specific case of Germany, it prospered without needing to use government stimulus, thanks to it's large export surplus, and it bred a mentality of never taking on government debt. It is the cardinal sin in German politics.
When the crisis in 2008 hit, Germany's economy flagged, then recovered somewhat thanks to China importing from it. But other countries were not so lucky, they were already economically much weaker than Germany, and did not benefit from a large export sector, so they had to use domestic demand and spending to kickstart the economy, just like the US did after 2008, and again after Covid.
But Germany considers this as unresponsible fiscal policy, this means when states failed because of the economic crisis, Germany was front and center pushing Austerity measures on those countries in return for financial aid.

Austerity means cutting spending, or increasing tax, but usually when German politicians talk about it, they mean the former, because increasing tax is not very popular.
So Greece, Spain, and Italy, who really needed to spend money to train up their workforce, integrate immigrants, build new sectors to benefit their economy, were unable to do so. Instead they were forced to moderate and cut investments in vital infrastructure.

And this leads us to Greece, because it suffers from that exact treatment, unable to invest when it really needs to, it's people left the country for those with already better infrastructure and prospects. Germany is also slowly in decline, and the austerity measures are coming more and more under fire for their failure, but considering how wealthy Germany is, it is easy to imagine how hard poorer countries in more need of development like Greece and Spain were hit.
This means even if Greece wanted to do the right thing now, it simply can't. It is under severe pressure in the EU to fix it's economy and reduce it's debt. It cannot spend to improve living standards or education.
To put it simply, the economic crisis fucked people really hard, but then some people got bent over and taken advantage of by the stronger countries, preaching about fiscal responsibility, while it were those specific stronger countries who could afford not spending as much because their economies were already more robust, but they falsely thought they dealt with the crisis better because of the austerity measures, not in spite of them, due to their other advantages.

Not to confuse anyone though, what the Greek government is doing is still dumb, it is still not a solution, or something that will lead them forward.
But I think it is important to remember this context. Greece would not nearly be in as difficult a situation if either it had control over it's own fiscal policy and currency, or if the Euro were set up properly with an independent European Central Bank that supports it's memeber states where needed, instead of being nothing but a tool to curb inflation for the richer states in Europe.

[wimschoenmakers]

Greece nearly got 15 billion euros ($16 billion) from other ( mainly northern ) European countries over the years, but they can't handle money. So now they are one of the poorest countries in Europe. So, it's obvious they have to boost their economic situation as a bankrupt country.

[pedrolopes]

Greece is barely Europe. They are developmentally closer to being a middle Eastern country than an European

[rhuephus]

well ... none of you lazy people would NEVER survive farming or ranching ... it's 7-day/24-hour job ...

[Ikmijnnaam]

Do something useful Charlie like fixing your 5 series beamer !!!! I dunno just a euhhh SUGGESTION

[Ikmijnnaam]

Turbo charge the productivity hahahahahahahahahahahaha oh I am seriously rolling over the ground of laughing ? the greeks want to do WHAT NOW !!!!??? Hahahahah they want to turbocharge the what now ? the productivity whahahahahahaha oh mennnn that is GOOD COMEDY RIGHT THERE