Greece is bringing in a 6-day work week. Could Canada follow?

Workers in Greece are going to have to work a little bit longer starting this week, with the country introducing a six-day work week for some.

As part of new labour laws passed last year, some Greek workers began a 48-hour work week starting Monday, a move that union representatives from across industries have termed “barbaric.”

The pro-business government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the changes are “growth-oriented” and are necessary given the country’s shrinking population and lack of skilled labour — a crisis Mitsotakis has described as a “ticking time bomb.”

However, the move is not finding many takers here in Canada.

“We do have an urgent need to fix Canada’s declining productivity. However, the solution is not necessarily to adopt longer working hours but rather work in a smarter way,” said Diana Palmerin-Velasco, senior director on the future of work at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

“To increase productivity, we need to enable an innovative economy through regulatory modernization, technological investment and adoption, digital transformation of SMEs, and better skilling and training of our workforce,” Palmerin-Velasco said.

Moshe Lander, economics professor at Concordia University, said Greece appears out of sync.

“The world seems to be going in the opposite direction. We seem to be talking about, how do we get down to a four-day work week? They want to go back to a six-day work week,” he said.

So, what does the law in Canada say about the idea?

Work conditions are set by provincial legislation, but a nation-wide view might come from the Canada Labour Code.

The Canada Labour Code, which oversees federally regulated industries such as banking, transportation, and telecommunications, says “hours of work in