Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. Happy Friday's fifth of July.
I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
We've spoken many times on this podcast about the four day working week, but it is safe to say that I don't think we have ever spoken about a six day working week.
Well, a six day.
Working week is the reality that some Greek workers are facing now after the country's parliament passed a new labor law that adds an extra eight hours to the working week, and that is for some industries. It's an attempt to address Greece's shrinking population and skills shortage. But in today's deep Dive, Sam, we're going to explain that decision a bit further. Before that deep dive, though, what's making headlines.
WA Senator Fatima Payman will become an independent senator after quitting the Labour Party. Last week, Payman crossed the floor going against the government to vote on the motion about the recognition of the State of Palestine. Payman was suspended from federal labor quote meeting and processes over the weekend before she announced she would move to the cross bench. Yesterday.
The twenty nine year old said she was quote deeply torn over her decision to quit labor, but that she no longer believed her quote principles align with those of the leadership of the Labour Party.
Authorities in Victoria have confirmed synthetic opioids were found in four bodies in a Melbourne house last week. The state's Health department has issued a drug alet for a white opioid powder being sold as cocaine. Vick Health warned the substance is over one hundred times more potent than heroin, and said even small doses can have life threatening effects. Comes after four people, including a seventeen year old boy, were found dead in a Melbourne home on the twenty sixth of June.
At least ten people are believed to have died during a Category for storm in Jamaica called Hurricane Beryl. Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared an island wide emergency, with curfew and evacuation orders in place. Neighbouring Caribbean nations have also been impacted by the storm, with local authorities in Saint Vincent's and the Grenadines warning about possible mass homelessness
and food shortages. The US National Hurricane Center has urged parts of eastern Mexico and southern Texas to monitor Hurricane Beryl's progress as attracts west over the next few days.
And today's good news, Australian scientists have made a breakthrough discovery about the family lives of blue whales. A project led by Charles Darwin University and A and U captured a world first recording of a pygmy blue whale nursing her calf underwater in timor less day. Evidence around where blue whales reproduce and how they interact with their calves has remained largely unknown in the scientific community, that is
until now. Okay, so Sam, we have spoken many times about all the different movements towards a four day work week. I think we've even explored whether we would do it.
There's a unique sort of reaction from audience members when we talk about this. It really hits a nerve.
It does, and I mean there are obvious reasons having less working days does seem extremely appealing for certain audiences. But that's not actually what I want to talk to you about today. I'm not sure if you're across it, but Greece has just announced a six day working week for some people.
Yeah, we've spent time on the four day working week, and the reason for that being tabled is to give people a better chance of the work life balance.
And I mean that's one of the reasons, the other being productivity.
Right, and this has obviously come amidst more working from home patterns after the pandemic. But the six day working week now kind of moves the pendulum right the other way. Where does this all come from.
Yeah, so look, it is a fairly unorthodox move, especially in the context that we've just set up, which is that I think the rest of the world is moving in one direction and seemingly Greece is moving in an entirely different one. To give you a bit of a lay of the land, the Greek parliament passed a labor law to add an extra eight hours to the working week. So staff can choose between breaking this up into an additional two hours a.
Day, so you could stay with a five day working week long days.
Yeah, really long days, or you could work that extra full shift in one go. And to get into the specifics here, because I think a lot of headlines might miss this, those people will get paid a forty percent overtime bonus for working the additional hours, and most significantly, it is optional.
Okay, this isn't a blankut.
Rule for every worker. It will only apply to certain industries and it's to those industries that are working on a twenty four hour basis, so like a manufacturing facility or something like that. It's also we're not talking about public hospitals or anything here, with only talking about private companies.
Okay, So the Greek Parliament has introduced this label law. What did they say are the key reasons why they think this is an important move?
Yeah, So the government's been pretty explicit as to why they are introducing this, and it is part of a suite of other reforms, so it's not a standalone bill. This reform has mainly come about because of an issue with the Greek economy. So essentially what's happening is that there are lots and lots of well educated young Greek people who are leaving the country to work elsewhere.
Interesting and on the kind of doorstep of Europe.
You've got a lot, you've got many options, and the results of that, as you would expect, is that there is a gap in productivity. We know that young workers and specifically ones in skilled labor, would be contributing a lot to the economy, and yet here we have this gap that's emerged with this kind of mass exodus of young Greek people that's alongside declining birth rates. And the Greek Prime Minister has called all of this a bit of a ticking time bomb and notional threat.
And this is on top of an economy that wasn't particularly strong to start with. Over the last ten years, right.
Yeah, exactly, So Greece has had a fairly tumultuous economic narrative emerge over the last decade or so. It has faced extremely dire economic conditions, experiencing what we call a debt crisis. In twenty fifteen, Greece defaulted on a one point five billion euro loan from the IMF.
The International Monetary Fund.
Exactly, and it became the first developed country to do so. I like vividly remember that. And this is an extremely unnecessary anecdote, but I remember because I had just finished school and was traveling and was in Greece, and it was at the time where you couldn't take out any money from any ATM. Themt ATMs exactly, and so I had just a bit of cash in my suitcase that I had to keep on me at all times. And it was a really strange time.
Yeah, that was a really defining moment for the country, and it was kind of eliciting images that we associate with something like a great depression, like you know, massive wheelbarrows of cash being carted around the country because inflation was just so wild.
Yeah, and that was what it was like in Greece for quite a while. It kind of began after the GFC and then continued on for a fairly long time until pretty recently. So it's only very recently that the economy has actually begun to surge, which is a complete three sixty. It's actually forecast to grow nearly three percent this year. And the current government has taken credit for really turning that economy around.
And so this current government is positioning itself as pro business. They've put out this policy saying that people should work an extra day. How have the Greek population responded to this policy?
Look, I think it's fair to say that there has been some pretty strong opposition, particularly from the unions. As you would expect, so the unions are there to represent workers, and so they are kind of the mouthpieces through which we've heard this story. The new rules were met with strike action by members of the unions. There was kind of this immediate striking that happened. Greek people already work
the longest hours in Europe. Wow. Yeah, so they put in an average of forty two hours a week according to EU figures. And so I think that's what the unions are really pointing to with their opposition to this new law. They're arguing that the country is essentially putting profits before people. I mean, it's a preticlear line of argument there. One union leader has said that I'll quote here, this has been passed by a government ideologically committed to
generating ever bigger profits for capital. He said, better productivity comes with better work conditions, a better quality of life for employees, and that we know is about less hours.
Not more. And that's kind of the four day work week argument exactly.
And so he is saying there that they are trying to increase productivity with this move, they're trying to stimulate more action in the economy, they're trying to do all these things. But the unions are firmly of the belief
that this will have the opposite effect. And I think that there is also this argument that if the exit is of young workers, these young workers can look anywhere else in the world and see that they have more options, more flexibility, and I can imagine that there is a fear that this might further alienate those young Greek workers.
And are the government using any examples from Europe, but even from around the world in driving this policy forward.
I mean, as I've said, it is a fairly unorthodox move here. So we've kind of seen the opposite. As I've insinuated, We've seen companies and some levels of government in Germany, in France, the UK, Spain and Iceland, they've all continued to experiment with what a flexible hybrid workplace looks like. As well as these models for a four day work week, there were these results from a UK trial of sixty one companies that showed the shorter work
week improved productivity, morale and team culture. It even had employee health outcomes increase as a result. Here in Australia we've spoken about it, I believe on the pod before an act Parliamentary committee has recommended a four day work week trial for the public service sector. They think that the sector is well placed to see how this four day work week could succeed. In Australia more broadly, so overall, the trend appears to be towards the four day work week, not the six day workweek.
Zara, I've got one question to ask you that I've been thinking about. Well, we've been chatting, so you said the Greek people were already working some of the longest hours in Europe forty two hours a week on average on average. Wouldn't there be an argument to be made that this legislation would just ensure that they're getting paid for the work that they're already doing.
It's a good point, I think. When I was reading about this, some of the concerns that kept arising was the fact that there is already so much overtime being done and not paid, as you just said, and the reason for that is there is not a whole lot of oversight, there's not a whole lot of policing of these kind of overtime.
Hours, particularly in the private sector exactly.
And the concern is that this will just extend to these new hours that they're interesting. You're supposedly only meant to be doing this additional block. You'll get compensated for that. But then if employees are expecting more on top of that, who is enforcing that sort of fair compensation And if that is absent, then we're looking at further issues for these employees who are already working over time and might even have to do more hours.
Wow, a seven day work week.
That's obviously just one hypothetical, but it is a concern that I've read about, particularly that's been voiced by the unions in Greece.
I'd love to know what you guys think listening from home. If you've got any thoughts on this, feel free to dm us on Instagram over the weekend with your thoughts on what you think of the policy in Greece at the moment. And thank you for joining us on the Daily OS this week. It's been a big week of podcasting here and we'll be back again in your ears
on Monday morning. A quick shout out though, I'll put a link in today's show notes to our email sign up, because every Saturday we now send out a long read, and that's one read that we think you'd enjoy on your Saturday morning. If you throw your email in today, you'll get one in you inbox tomorrow morning. We'll be back again on Monday to you then. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Calcadion woman
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