The deep gap between the image the government presents of the labor market and the reality workers experience every day was highlighted by PASOK MP Michalis Katrinis during the discussion of the Ministry of Labor bill in the plenary session of Parliament.
He pointed out that, according to data from IOBE and the OECD, Greece continues to record some of the lowest employment rates in the European Union, high long-term unemployment, major skills mismatches, and low participation in lifelong learning.
“You talk about the number of jobs. We talk about the quality of those jobs”, he said characteristically, noting that only 53% of new contracts are full-time, while the more than 3.3 million departures from work recorded by the ERGANI system within one year make up a market of uncertainty rather than stability.
Referring to citizens' income, he stressed that the government's celebrations over increases in wages and pensions are contradicted by the actual data. He cited the report of INE-GSEE, according to which the real wage increases in the period 2019-2025 are marginal, while the country remains in the last positions in the European Union in terms of purchasing power.
At the same time, he highlighted the difficult situation of pensioners, recalling PASOK's proposal to restore EKAS for 350,000 low-income pensioners, as well as the government's responsibilities for EFKA's fiscal course.
He stressed that workers' coverage by collective agreements is far from the European target of 80%, while hundreds of thousands of workers in critical sectors remain outside collective protection.
Responding to the government's attacks on PASOK's proposal regarding the pilot implementation of the four-day workweek, he stressed that reality itself disproves those who describe it as unworkable, as large companies are already proceeding with corresponding pilot implementations.
Referring to the concept of labor justice, he stressed that it is not limited to eliminating the wage gap between men and women, but concerns the long-term unemployed, women who struggle to remain in the labor market due to a lack of care structures, unemployed people aged 55 to 74 who are abandoned after the end of DYPA programs, as well as the weakening of DYPA itself through the removal of experienced labor counselors.
Michalis Katrinis concluded by saying that the country needs a different strategy, one that will change the productive model, invest in productivity, innovation, skills, quality work, and collective bargaining.
“Greece does not need a labor market that produces better indicators, but a labor market that produces better lives”, he stressed characteristically.