The New Democracy government is escalating its attack on the workers with two new reactionary bills. The more it sinks into the mire of scandals and the cover-up of its crimes, the more dangerous and ruthless it becomes. The first bill has the false title of… “fair labor”(!) and the second one is the new “Disciplinary Code”for civil servants in the Public Sector. It is trying to open new avenues of exploitation in favor of capital but also to punish the struggling public sector workers that fight for free public health and education, and have become the nightmare of the government.
The government itself cynically admits that with the «fair labor» bill it is “making it easier” for businesses. The government is implementing EU labor policy. The Directive 2003/88, which refers to the organization of working time, has a reference to the “11-hour rest” that the government translates into… 13-hour work!
The freedom of capital to do whatever it wants is presented as… the “freedom” of the worker to “arrange” his working time. Workers are… free to choose the most cruel way of exploiting themselves, that’s what the government tells us. On the other hand, the new Disciplinary Code clearly aims at the possibility of mass resistance to the Public Sector, in an area where the anti-capitalist Left is acting as a pioneer (especially in education and health). The support of the parliamentary “opposition” is impressive, as SYRIZA has already voted in favor of 30 articles of the new Disciplinary Code!
The government is doing what employers demand, more working hours, more flexible, cheaper. The fact that in the first seven months of 2025, recorded overtime in crucial sectors appears to have increased by 80% in one year (retail +105%, industry +65%), also reflects capital’s need for cheaper overtime, something that the new labor bill diligently promotes!
The most important reactionary changes:
First, the 13-hour workday is extended. With the 13-hour workday, the government is taking the working class back to the Chicago era by extending working hours and further shrinking the daily limit for replenishing the workforce. The regulations that “cannot be applied for more than 37 days on an annual basis,” or “consent” of the employee, sound like silly “jokes” since, as it turns out in practice, there is no mechanism to control employer misconduct with the dissolution of the Labor Inspectorate, and employees will simply be pawns in the hands of the employer. Besides, layoffs do not need an “excuse”, but are an “employer’s right”, according to the narrative of bourgeois governments and capital.The move to impose the 13-hour workday also aims to satisfy employers’ demands for a cheap and flexible workforce, especially in sectors such as tourism, food, construction, agricultural workers. And given that the government’s efforts to “bring” foreign workers, e.g. from India or Bangladesh, did not satisfy employers’ appetites, especially in the tourism industry, the new bill is offering local workers as cheap as the immigrants.
Second, the employer is given the opportunity to impose overtime work rotationally, in a move that promotes flexible work, since the employer is not forced to hire another employee. At the first half of 2025, full-time contracts were 57% while part-time and rotating contracts were 33.76% and 8.91% respectively, approximately four out of 10!.
Third, employers are exempt from insurance contributions for overtime, night work and holidays. Cutting of employer insurance contributions makes a dark nightmare for future pensioners. The Ministry claims that the employee will also put money in his pocket from the reduction in contributions. However, what will be left over from the new settlement will be taxed, wiping out almost the entire difference in taxes, while the only winner will be the employer who will save 22% of the contributions
Fourth, “flexible” stay at the workplace up to 120 minutes to some sectors beyond the digital card timetable, following an “agreement between employer and employee”. This cunning regulation allows an employee to work for 10 hours (e.g. 8 am-6 pm), although they declare them to work 8 hours. To start work at 8 am, to punch a digital card at 10 am and to finish at 6 pm. Another addition to the existing framework follows exactly the same logic, as a 30-minute period before and after work is provided for employees in industry, so that “they can prepare appropriately when they arrive and leave work”.
Fifth, the division of annual vacation leave. Another point that again «photographs» specific seasonal sectors (tourism, catering, etc.) by providing the possibility of breaking the employee’s vacation leave into smaller parts of two weeks so that the employer does not have a problem in this case either.
The new Disciplinary Code for civil servants has been already voted on. New Democracy voted for it as a whole, while SYRIZA and PASOK (Social Democrats) voted for a series of reactionary articles. With the new Code, the disciplinary councils will have an exclusive composition from the state’s Legal Advisors, those who defend the government and the Ministries in every dispute with the labor movement. Trade union action will be hit with devastating salary penalties, as well as direct dismissal for «inappropriate behavior», criticism of the superior authority, violation of confidentiality. They seek to crush the strikes of teachers and health workers against the commercialization of public education and health. Because only with fear, threats, persecutions can the governments of poverty and war advance.
And while the persecutions by the government and the bill as a whole are being implemented, the bureaucratic unionism in GSEE and ADEDY vote against a militant proposal for a strike that was submitted by the anti-capitalist forces to the General Council of GSEE and ADEDY. Communist Liberation supports the anti-capitalist perspective as an answer to this barbarity. A deeply political militant proposal for the labor movement that can overthrow the government and the policy that crushes the people, but also shake any government’s ability to proceed with the implementation of anti-labor measures, even against the consensual parliamentary opposition that votes for stability!
