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Government Building

The Greek legislature has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that authorizes 13-hour work shifts, in the face of strong opposition and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials asserted the measure will revamp the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials insists that the extended workday is voluntary, only affects the private sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the governing conservative political group, with the moderate faction – now the main opposition – voting against the bill, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, saying the reforms bring in line Greek laws with current labor-market conditions, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to accept extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time regulations, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours including overtime but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have accused the government of weakening employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific sectors in a bid to stimulate the economy.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the start of the summer, permit workers to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's national base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.