Greece’s crushing economic crisis, which has created a record 27.6 percent unemployment rate apparently has so many workers scared of losing their jobs that they are working without being paid for months.
The shocking data came from IKA’s Labor Inspectorate which said it found only 700,000 of 1.8 million workers in the private sector are receiving their regular – albeit reduced – salaries on time. It didn’t say if companies are taking advantage of the crisis by delaying salaries or not paying them at all, nor what would be done about the violation of Greek labor laws.
The delays in pay range from three to 12 months with some worker suspecting they will never be paid and that the government won’t do anything about it. This year, one million workers were also denied vacation pay.
The data shows that despite the law and the occasional fines on businesses who do not comply, complaints from employees are very rare, because they fear being fired and that it’s a lot cheaper for companies to pay fines than their workers.
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