The construction workers' union of the Greek region of Halkidiki condemned the entrepreneurs and the church-state administration of Mount Athos for "severe exploitation of workers".
The Athens weekly "Pondiki" published a statement on its website stating that the working conditions on Mount Athos are "miserable" and "tragic" at several construction sites in that refuge of local and foreign Orthodox monks.
According to them, at one construction site they were even "hell", which the union confirmed by visiting the construction sites and reporting irregularities to the authorities.
The builders work "at least 10 hours a day", without a contract, "in medieval conditions... without elementary equipment and without any protective measures, ... carrying stone blocks in their own hands". The wages of workers are "insultingly low" - less than 2,5 euros per hour and up to a total of 25 euros per day, and such wages are paid at large intervals, once a month, and not once a week, as should be the case in these jobs, the union stated.
Since they have no money, as reported by the Greek weekly, the workers take groceries from the merchants on a discount, but the prices on Mount Athos, which are already significantly higher than elsewhere in Greece, are even higher in that case.
The workers on Sveta Gora work "from morning to night because the entrepreneurs who exploit them tell them: 'Since you are already on Sveta Gora and you have nothing else to do, then work.'" They were placed on the construction sites themselves "without basic conditions for life and rest" - without electricity, water, stoves, refrigerators, tables, chairs, in "incredibly unhygienic conditions".
Improvised toilets are used by more than 10 people each, they are also used for showering, and they sleep in monastic cells intended for one monk, and there are six to eight of them.
Because of all this, even though they cannot find work elsewhere due to the crisis in Greece, the workers run away after the first month, as soon as they receive their first salary, and more and more inexperienced people come to replace them, and the danger of an accident on the construction site is increasing, the union pointed out.
To prevent them from fleeing, employers blackmail them by paying "return costs", for which they have yet to earn the money.
Having described the situation in this way and filed a complaint with the authorities, from which there was no response, the Halkidiki Construction Workers' Union called the workers to "union and class struggle".
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