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Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a contentious labor reform that authorizes 13-hour working days, in the face of strong opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the law will revamp the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week stays unchanged.

Officials insists that the longer shift is optional, solely affects the business sector, and can only be implemented for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate faction – currently the main resistance – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests calling for the law's repeal recently that halted public transport and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, claiming the changes bring in line Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misinforming the public.

These regulations will give employees the choice to accept extra work with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

The measure follows European Union labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Critical Perspectives and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They argue Greek workers already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Financial Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a bid to stimulate the economy.

Recent laws, which started at the start of July, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

European Work Data and Greek Financial Metrics

• Across the EU in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting this year, the nation's official minimum wage was €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an EU average of 5.9%, data from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.