Shocking data released by the General Confederation of Greek Workers Union GSEE reveals that the exploitation of unemployed Greeks is on the rise. Working conditions for hundreds of thousands of workers in Greece can be characterized as unprecedented and resemble those that existed in medieval ages. Even large companies have established paying practices not seen in the past, by choosing to pay part of the salary, in most cases one-third of a normal wage, with supermarket coupons or free meals, instead of money. In fact, several cases have been recorded where employees received one or two meals per day for free instead of a full salary, while in other cases, companies provided their employees free hotel accommodation for working full-time (8 hours per day) for 25 or even 30 days per month. Hundreds of businesses are now paying their employees every three months, instead of every month, while thousands of businesses pay a small part of the agreed salary instead of a full wage.
Furthermore, many companies are delaying payments for six or even twelve months, while employees continue to work for eight hours a day. At the same time, thousands of employees are illegally not receiving their benefits or holiday pay. In fact, according to GSEE, it is estimated that more than 1 million employees work under these conditions.
As far as young people are concerned, it was revealed that employees under 25 years of age are forced to sign monthly contracts for part-time jobs (4 hours per day), for 180 euros. This means that these workers are getting paid 2.25 euros per day, way below the legal minimum hourly wage. Indicative of the situation in Greece is that out of the 423,000 employment announcements per year, 140,000 are for part-time contracts.
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