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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.

NEW YORK: Global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose 26 percent in September from a year ago to a record 2.1 million units, driven by strong demand in China and a late US tax-credit rush, market research firm Rho Motion said on Wednesday.
China accounted for about two-thirds of global sales with about 1.3 million units, while North America also hit a record as US buyers moved to secure incentives before they expired, said Rho Motion data manager Charles Lester.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
China is the world’s biggest car market and accounts for more than half of global EV sales, which in Rho Motion’s data include battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. September, typically China’s busiest month for car buying, saw sales rise as shoppers looked to make the most of trade-in subsidies before some regions started phasing them out. US demand reflected a surge as buyers rushed to claim the expiring $7,500 EV tax credit, although demand is expected to decline sharply in the fourth quarter “as both consumers and businesses lose access to the federal incentives that have underpinned EV purchases,” Rho Motion said. Europe also hit a new high, helped by incentives in Germany and strong demand in Britain, while Tesla’s rollout of a lower-cost Model Y in Europe is expected to further intensify competition in coming months.

BY THE NUMBERS
Global sales of battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids rose 26 percent to a record 2.1 million units in September, Rho Motion data showed.
Chinese sales rose to about 1.3 million vehicles. European sales jumped 36 percent to 427,541 units, while North American sales climbed 66 percent to about 215,000. Sales in the rest of the world jumped 48 percent to 153,594 vehicles.

KEY QUOTE
“With the federal incentive gone, US demand is expected to drop sharply in the final quarter of the year,” Lester said.
Some automakers such as General Motors and Hyundai are trying to soften the blow by offering discounts or tapping dealer inventories, but overall production is being scaled back, he added. (Reporting by Jesus Calero; Editing by Alexander Smith)