In countries such as the UK, where workers are used to setting their own terms for employment, a new scheme being proposed by Greece’s Department of Labour and Social Security would probably be met with resistance and claims of infringement of rights. However, Greeks have a tradition of going where the work is – often to the other side of the globe – and it seems likely that the new scheme will be welcomed by workers as well as employers.

The pilot programme to be implemented by the Public Employment Service (DYPA) aims to solve the problem of finding agricultural workers in Crete and other parts of the country during the winter months. As the minister of Labour and Social Security Adonis Georgiadis announced in an interview on Open TV, the DYPA will pay for the transfer of workers from areas with high unemployment to others with high demand for workers.

“In Crete,” he explained, “there is a major shortage of labour in the primary sector, and they cannot find agricultural workers, while we have areas in Greece such as Western Macedonia where there is high unemployment. So what to do? We are going to start a pilot programme for the harvest months of October-November in Crete and the DYPA will pay the costs of removal and accommodation for workers from Western Macedonia.

“That way we will see if it works – if we can move workers for a limited period of time, with a subsidy, from an area with high unemployment to another with a high demand for labour. If the system works we will extend it afterwards to the whole of the country, but as a beginning we will do it as a pilot in Western Macedonia,” the minister said.
(Haniotika Nea, 01-08-23)