{"id":4011,"date":"2026-05-05T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T07:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=4011"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:03:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T07:03:00","slug":"yannis-voutsinas-president-of-the-greek-union-of-industrialists-and-entrepreneurs-responds-to-androulakis-on-the-issue-of-fewer-working-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=4011","title":{"rendered":"Yannis Voutsinas, President of the Greek Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, responds to Androulakis on the issue of fewer working hours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a statement, president of the <b>Central Union of Greek Chambers of Commerce (CCHC), <\/b>Giannis Voutsinas, responds to Nikos Androulakis on the <b>working <\/b>32 or 35 hours with <b>full pay.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fewer hours <b>without productivity<\/b> increase the <b>cost<\/b> for <b>SMEs <\/b>and reinforce the inertia of the spirit,&#8221; says Mr Voutsinas in response to the president of <b>PASOK <\/b>and the <b>reduction of working hours.<\/p>\n<p>The president of the CECE, Yannis Voutsinas, argues that <b>including reduction<\/b> of working hours <b>without<\/b> productivity gains will increase<\/b> labour costs<\/b> and will put particular pressure on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It recognises that talk of fewer working hours is <b>positive<\/b>, but only if <b>reforms<\/b> such as <b>enhancing<\/b> productivity, <b>digital transformation<\/b>, skills improvements and a stable economic environment precede it. <\/p>\n<p>The statement in detail:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The proposal by the president of PASOK-Ministry of Change, <b>Nikos Androulakis,<\/b> to reduce the working week to 32 or 35 hours with full pay is attractive at first sight, but it does not &#8220;stand up&#8221; to the real economy. Greece remains significantly behind in productivity: about 46% of the Eurozone average in GDP per hour worked and about 30% below the EU average, and still below 2009 levels. In this environment, an across-the-board reduction in working time with equal pay means an increase in costs without a corresponding increase in output. The burden will fall mainly on micro enterprises, which constitute the vast majority of the Greek market. For them, such a measure would entail practical problems such as the inability to cover working hours and a further increase in operating costs. In addition, these businesses face major shortages of human resources. <\/p>\n<p>The CCEE<\/b> does not reject the discussion <\/b>on the reduction of working hours. <b>A prerequisite<\/b>, however, is that it is preceded by a substantial boost to productivity: investment in digital transformation, upgrading skills, reducing non-wage costs and a stable business environment. And all this on the basis that micro-enterprises are not a &#8220;disruptive weakness&#8221; of the Greek economy but the real economy. Statements without documentation and costing create unrealistic expectations for workers and uncertainty for businesses. The issue is not slogans, but feasible policies.<\/p>\n<p>The KEEE calls on all political forces to submit <b>comprehensive proposals<\/b> with clear costs and impact studies, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises and their core micro enterprises, which constitute the vast majority of them. Dialogue on the future of work requires evidence and realism.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a statement, the president of the Central Union of Greek Chambers of Commerce, Yannis Voutsinas, responds to Nikos Androulakis on the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}