Kerameus: There is no six-day work in Greece

Labour and Social Security Minister Niki Kerameus, in an interview with TV SKAI on Monday, provided clarifications about the status of the extraordinary working shifts on Saturday.

Labour and Social Security Minister Niki Kerameus, in an interview with TV SKAI on Monday, provided clarifications about the status of the extraordinary working shifts on Saturday.

The minister clarified that there is no six-day working week in Greece, noting that if the five-day week had become a six-day week, then people would have been working everywhere one looked the previous Saturday, something that clearly did not take place. What has changed, Kerameus said, was that the possibility of adding an extraordinary shift has been established for very specific categories of businesses, such as those that work 24 hours a day, or for six and seven days a week, such as factories and industrial plants that have rolling shifts.

“Even in this case, not all the employees are included to the measure. In an industry that operates all day, the accounting office is not open all days,” the minister explained, adding that employees cannot be asked to work this extra shift systematically and constantly, as it is illegal and abusive on the part of the employer and the employee has the right to refuse and is protected by law.