ATHENS: Greece’s parliament on Wednesday was to approve a reform allowing workers to work 13-hour days under exceptional circumstances, drawing fire from unions and opposition parties.
The new law is expected to be passed by parliament, where the ruling conservatives have 156 MPs in the 300-seat chamber.
Unions have staged two general strikes against the reform this month, the latest of them on Tuesday.
The government insists that the 13-hour workday is optional, only affects the private sector, and can only be applied up to 37 days a year.
“It requires an employee’s consent,” Labor Minister Niki Kerameus told Skai TV on Tuesday.
The minister has said she has received, and rejected, collective agreement requests proposing even longer hours.
The reform is seen as targeted toward Greece’s services sector, especially during the busy summer tourism season, enabling employers to avoid hiring additional staff.
But opposition parties and unions argue that workers will risk layoffs if they refuse longer hours.
“Our health, both mental and physical, and the balance between personal and professional life are goods that cannot be replaced with money,” Stefanos Chatziliadis, a senior member of civil service union ADEDY, said during a Tuesday protest in Thessaloniki.
“Making it legal to work from morning till night is not normal and cannot be tolerated by our society. It is truly barbaric. It is inhuman,” he said.
The legal working day in Greece is eight hours, with the possibility of performing paid overtime.
According to Eurostat, Greeks work 39.8 hours a week on average compared to the EU average of 35.8 hours.
“This is a first step toward extending the working hours; in the private sector, you can’t really refuse, they always find ways to impose what they want,” said Maria, a 46-year-old construction company employee who declined to give a surname.
The current government has already legalized a six-day working week, especially during high demand in certain sectors including tourism.
Greece to approve disputed 13-hour workday reform
https://arab.news/4b2vt
Greece to approve disputed 13-hour workday reform
- The new law is expected to be passed by parliament, where the ruling conservatives have 156 MPs in the 300-seat chamber
- Unions have staged two general strikes against the reform this month, the latest of them on Tuesday
Myanmar, Afghan hopeful scholars mourn UK study visa ban
- Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon citizens will be barred from obtaining university visas
- Britain’s travel block is “really painful” for Afghan women hoping to escape to an education abroad, said one female
YANGON, Myanmar: Aspiring students are lamenting Britain’s ban on education visas for their war-weary countries — dashing dreams of bettering themselves and their home nations.
Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon citizens will be barred from obtaining university visas, London announced this week, saying asylum applications by visiting students had “rocketed” nearly 500 percent from 2021 to 2025.
“It’s like the country is punishing the weak, the most vulnerable people,” said one woman from Myanmar.
She was preparing for a scholarship interview for a master’s in climate change finance when her plans were upended by Downing Street’s decree on Wednesday.
“I could not focus the whole morning,” the 28-year-old told AFP from Yangon, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons in a country riven by civil war since a 2021 military coup.
“I can’t picture my future.”
Like in much of the developed world, immigration has become a divisive issue in Britain.
Efforts to beat back arrivals mirror the sweeping travel bans issued by US President Donald Trump which have shut out citizens of Myanmar, Sudan and Afghanistan.
Since the chaotic military withdrawal of Britain, the United States and other NATO nations in 2021, Afghanistan has been ruled by a resurgent Taliban government which has banned women over age 12 from attending school.
Britain’s travel block is “really painful” for Afghan women hoping to escape to an education abroad, said one female child social worker in Ghazni province, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
She has now canceled her plans to study for a master’s in both the US and the UK.
“Now I am trying to be hopeful, but I think it would also be a mistake,” said the 27-year-old.
In the summer of 2024, Arefa Mohammadi fled to neighboring Pakistan, living in limbo as she applied to universities.
She got an offer to study public health in England but now cannot accept it.
“It was truly shocking for me,” said the 24-year-old.
“This situation put me in a place where I haven’t any goals, because all my goals and all my futures are unpredictable.”
- ‘Cruel and short-sighted’ -
In Kabul, a 39-year-old man faces similar heartbreak.
He was accepted to study specialist subjects related to water management at three universities in England and Scotland.
“When I was a child I witnessed several challenges like flash floods, water scarcity, environmental neglect, inefficient irrigation systems,” he said, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons. “To address these challenges I made my application.”
“I hoped to acquire modern knowledge. It’s impossible to acquire in Afghanistan,” he added.
Some 33 million people in the country face severe water shortages, aid agencies say, a result of compounding multi-year droughts, climate change and infrastructure battered by decades of war.
Britain’s Labour government made the decision to curb visas as the right-wing Reform UK party surges in opinion polls with its hard-line stance against immigration.
The UK Home Office said almost 135,000 asylum seekers had entered the country through legal routes since 2021.
Activist organization Burma Campaign UK called the visa ban “exceptionally cruel and shortsighted.”
“The opportunity to come to the UK to study is life-changing for the individual student but also an investment in the future of Myanmar,” said program director Zoya Phan in a statement.
One exiled Myanmar journalist has been living over the border in Thailand after escaping the military rule which has clamped down on press freedoms.
“When the military coup happened I was just 22, so I had a lot of dreams,” she said. “But over the past five years there have been a lot of struggles — I couldn’t complete my dreams.”
Every year since the junta takeover she applied for further education to buoy her spirits.
But she received an email Thursday morning canceling her place to study for a master’s at a London university.
“Everything is gone,” she said. “My UK dream is all disappeared.”
