The grim reality faced by thousands of workers in the tourism sector is laid bare in an interview with parapolitika.gr by Georgios Stefanakis, president of the Attica Food Service, Tourism and Hotel Workers’ Union, against the backdrop of the sector’s strike action on Wednesday, June 24.
As he argues, while Greek tourism continues to break records in arrivals and revenue, workers are left struggling to survive on wages frozen at 2011 levels, facing grueling working hours, severe staff shortages, and mounting workplace pressure.
“The majority of workers in seasonal hotels are trying to secure a full year’s income within just five, six, or seven months. At the same time, arrivals and profits for major hotel groups have multiplied,” he says pointedly. According to Stefanakis, staffing shortages across the industry have led to conditions of overwork, with a single employee routinely performing the duties of two or even three people. “Right now, one worker is doing the job of two or even three,” he notes, emphasizing that this intensification of labor affects not only workers’ daily lives but also health and safety conditions in the workplace.
Tourism: “They can’t find staff because the conditions are a deterrent”
Addressing the long-standing staffing shortage in tourism, the union president argues that the problem lies not in a lack of available workers, but in the conditions that prevail across the industry. “They can’t find staff because they offer low wages and workers are pushed to exhausting limits. This is then used as justification for the ever-expanding role of outsourcing and contractor companies,” he argues.
He also highlights a serious housing crisis in tourist destinations, particularly on the islands, where many seasonal workers are unable to find affordable accommodation. “Where is someone supposed to go to work when they can’t find a place to live, or when they’re forced to share a tiny room with four or five other people?” he asks.
What Georgios Stefanakis says about outsourcing companies
Stefanakis also addresses the role of outsourcing companies operating within the sector, claiming that in some cases their agreements with hotel businesses include specific restrictive clauses. According to him, market sources indicate that if a hotel wishes to directly hire a worker currently employed through a contractor, a financial penalty may be triggered.
“I have information — confirmed verbally by people in the industry — that there are agreements stipulating payments in the region of €5,000 in cases where a hotel directly hires a worker,” he states. The union president believes such practices act as a barrier to the free movement of workers within the labor market.
Workers’ demands
Ahead of the June 24 strike, workers in the food service and tourism sectors are demanding, according to Stefanakis, meaningful wage increases, guaranteed five-day working weeks and eight-hour shifts, improved health and safety conditions in the workplace, and stronger support measures for seasonal workers.
He places particular emphasis on unemployment benefits for seasonal workers, arguing that current provisions cover only a small portion of the off-season period between tourist cycles. He also calls for the reinstatement of the lump-sum severance payment, which he says was abolished in previous years, as well as the restoration of heavy and unhealthy work classifications for professions involving particularly demanding physical labor.
“A hotel housekeeper today is expected to work until the age of 67 to retire. The same goes for a cook or other workers who perform heavy manual labor every single day,” he notes. In his view, if better wages, more stable employment conditions, and genuine support for seasonal workers during off-season months were guaranteed, the tourism sector’s staffing shortage would be significantly reduced.
“Tourism’s record numbers were built on the erosion of workers’ rights”
When asked whether Greek tourism can continue to grow sustainably without improving labor conditions, Stefanakis is sharply critical of the current development model. “All these records were achieved through the dismantling of workers’ rights. The austerity-era laws remain in force, and the current tourism growth model was built on top of them,” he states.
In closing, he underscores that the June 24 strike is an effort to bring the sector’s problems to light and to fight for better working conditions for the people who, as he puts it, are the backbone of one of the most important sectors of the Greek economy. “There are two completely different worlds. On one side, workers who don’t know how they’ll make it through the year — and on the other, those who watch their profits grow year after year,” he concludes.
