Speaking in parliament during a debate on a question submitted by the KKE, Koutsoumbas launched a fierce attack on the government over workplace conditions and health and safety.

‘The main cause of the surge in employer and government crimes in the workplace is the intensification and squeezing of workers. It is the abolition of fixed daily working hours. It is the extension of working life, even up to 74 years for certain categories. In other words, it is the intensification of exploitation combined with the absence of health and safety measures and the weakening of inspection mechanisms,’ Koutsoumbas said.

He attributed the increase in workplace accidents and occupational diseases to work intensification, weakened inspection mechanisms and flexible forms of employment, describing the situation as an ‘undeclared war’ with thousands of workers as victims. Another workplace accident occurred yesterday in Patisia, as well as a workplace accident in Drapetsona.

At the same time, he accused the government of distorting the real picture through reassuring, distorted ‘official’ statistics. He also referred to the working conditions of migrant farm workers in Ilia, where diseases from another era are reappearing because of inhumane working conditions.

‘You are taking us back to the Middle Ages’

‘You refer to Eurostat’s well-known cooked statistics to prove that the situation in Greece is better than in the rest of Europe. We will remind you only of a recent event: a farm worker in Ilia lost his life from leptospirosis and ten others are hospitalised with tuberculosis because of miserable working and living conditions. I do not know whether you in New Democracy realise it. Diseases of the previous century are being revived here because of inhumane working conditions. And at your conference over the weekend, you said that you would build “the Greece of 2030”. You are taking us back to the Middle Ages, ladies and gentlemen…’ the KKE general secretary said.

He added that these farm workers would never be recorded on what he described as the macabre list, since they do not meet the criteria established by governments in Greece and the EU.

‘You bring tens of thousands of immigrants to work in our country through intergovernmental agreements, but no government has established the obvious protections for these fellow human beings,’ Koutsoumbas said.

The KKE general secretary focused particularly on the increase in workplace accidents among older workers, linking it to the extension of working life and the economic pressure that forces even pensioners to continue working.

He also criticised government interventions in the Labour Inspectorate, objecting to the involvement of private entities in health and safety inspections. He also criticised PASOK for its position on changes to working hours.

Koutsoumbas attacks PASOK

‘PASOK’s proposals for a four-day working week caused a similar stir. Of course, when big employers blew the whistle, PASOK also turned it into a joke. They told us that we misunderstood it. That it is not for all workers, but only for a small category. That it is not for all businesses, but only for large ones and for a few specific specialisations. And that it will also be subsidised.

‘But what did Mr Androulakis not tell us? That PASOK has already voted in the European and Greek parliaments for the four-day working week and the arrangement of working time. In other words, unpaid overtime and ten-hour and 13-hour working days,’ Koutsoumbas said.

He added that PASOK ‘has supported four anti-labour laws that impose and expand the arrangement of working time and flexible forms of employment. It has backed, together with its executives in the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE), the abolition of collective bargaining and the National Collective Agreement.’

In closing, Koutsoumbas restated the demand for a seven-hour day, a five-day week and a 35-hour working week, alongside wage increases and the strengthening of collective agreements, arguing that these are necessary measures to ensure decent and safe working conditions.

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