Greece moves to make the working day longer, but will workers take it?

Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm William Lee Adams. Good morning.

So how long is your working day? In Greece, it may soon be up to 13 hours.

Parliament is voting on a bill, allowing private sector staff to work up to

an extra five hours a day if both employee and employer agree. Labor unions have called mass

strikes and protests, which have hit the public sector. This comes as Greece faces high debt,

rising inflation, and lower wages than much of the European Union. Yohannis Smyrneos is an archaeologist in Athens who would be subject to the new rules.

There is a lot of employees that are afraid that if they refuse to work 13 hours a day, they are going to be fired.

So I think the government is basically serving this narrative that this is going to benefit the people

because they will be working more hours and they will be earning more money. But of course,

this is 50% of the truth. In reality, what is happening is that prices are rising, rents are

rising, and people need to work more hours to be able to cover these expenses.

Ioannes Smyrneos there.

The center-right government says the longer hours will be optional and capped at 48 hours a week

and that overtime will be better compensated with a 40% bonus.

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unless the ruling party does well in upcoming midterm elections.

That's according to President Trump.

An imminent currency swap deal with Argentina's central bank was reported last week,

but now it seems it could be linked to how well Javier Malé's party does in those elections.

Millet has brought in sweeping spending cuts since his election,

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