Over 60 suggestions by agencies and political parties will be incorporated in the new draft bill by Wednesday morning, Labor Minister Niki Kerameus said in Parliament on Tuesday.
During the plenary debate, Kerameus said those would include "an explicit regulation that for the option of 13 hours of overtime work, all protective restrictions on work and rest duration must be observed. Over six improvements proposed by the National Association of Persons with Disabilities (ESAMEA) will be added. [Also,] proposals by the Association of Safety Technicians, as well as a series of improvements proposed by the Parliament's Scientific Service."
The minister rejected criticism by opposition parties about "medieval conditions in the labor market" and compared 2019 unemployment rate and minimum wages with current levels. Commenting on an employee's option to work 13 overtime hours for the same employer, she accused the opposition of "misleading society", and brought to Parliament examples of hotel employees in the Heraklion and Chania Prefectures on Crete who requested to work 6 days a week, while those requesting a 7th day in Rhodes were rejected as illegal.
Responding to charges that Greek employees work for longer hours than the European average, she said that happened to only 3.1% of Greek wage earners, with over 49 hours, compared to the European average of 3.4%. In addition, of those who left Greece during the crisis years (680,000), 65% or 420,000 have returned to Greece according to Eurostat, while last year more returned than left.
Among other responses to criticism, the minister said that in 2024, a total of 79,000 inspections were carried out by the Labor Inspectorate compared to 59,000 in 2019, while currently 253,000 retirees are taking advantage of the more beneficial tax regulations allowing them to work while receiving pension checks. This reduced illegal labor practices and brought revenues to the state. She also said that Germany was copying Greece's system while France and Finland had requested more information. Furthermore, the minister said, the bill included the ratification of three agreements with the International Labor Organization.
Kerameus said that the bill focused on three tracks: positive regulations for employees, regulations facilitating businesses in offering new job positions, and modernizing the institutional framework.