It's not that they're lazy, they're just clever. Generalizing, in southern countries, job prospects are usually tied to your last name and other things not tied to performance. So people slack off at work because they're not dumb. So their bosses ask them to work longer to compensate.

No, the correct conclusion is that the metric “work hour” is just likely inconsistent and has little value by itself. The real tragedy is that beaureaucrats or media use these weak metrics to back up their claims one way or another..