Workers in Greece tend to work more hours than the average European, 45.4 hours per week in comparison to an average of 38.4 hours in the EU27 Member States, according to research from Eurofound.

Over the past 15 years, there is a trend towards reducing working hours for workers across Europe. In Greece, however, long working hours continue to be the norm, despite an average collectively agreed normal working week of 40 hours. One out of four Greek workers (25.9%) works at least ten hours per day more than five times per month, which is significantly more than the one out of six (16.9%) workers across the European Union in the same situation.

Following a decrease in the nominal collectively agreed pay from 5.8% in 2006 to 5.1% in 2007, together with higher inflation levels, workers in Greece received average real pay increases of 1.2% in 2007, which is well below the EU average of 2.3%.

During a two-day visit to Greece, Eurofound experts will brief representatives from the Greek Ministry of Employment and Social Protection, the SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, and the trade union GSEE about its latest comparative findings and research data on living and working conditions in Greece. Eurofound’s mandate is to provide Europe’s social policy-makers with comparative data and advice. Its comparative research into working conditions, resulting from regular pan-European surveys and in-depth analysis over the past 15 years, provides a snapshot of how workers in Greece perceive their working conditions, in comparison to workers elsewhere in Europe.

Over the past two decades, work intensification has become an increasing feature of working conditions for workers across Europe. In Greece, work intensity is shown to be at higher than average levels in EU27 countries, with working at very high speed (73.3% compared to 59.6%) and working to tight deadlines (68.4% compared to 61.8%) being the two primary indicators. Research also shows that Greek workers have relatively limited opportunities to determine their working hours themselves, and this can impact negatively on their work–life balance. Across the EU27, only workers in Cyprus and Bulgaria have less flexibility in terms of working hours.

A significant number of Greek workers consider their health to be affected by work in comparison to workers elsewhere in Europe (68.1% compared to 35.2%). Nearly one in two Greek workers report problems with backache and stress due to work, which is twice as high as elsewhere in Europe. Surprisingly, perhaps, is the finding that Greek workers report half as many days off work due to illness and health problems than the average in Europe, a tendency which has remained constant over the past 15 years.