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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a hotly debated labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, despite fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the law will update Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek continues as before.

The government maintains that the extended workday is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Political Support and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right political group, with the moderate party – currently the primary resistance – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing group abstained.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that brought transportation and public services to a stop.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, saying the reforms align Greek laws with modern employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

The laws will give employees the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time rules, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours including overtime but allow adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Responses

But, critics have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek workers currently work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

New laws, which came into effect at the beginning of July, allow employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the longest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's national minimum wage was €968 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 the summer compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in recent years, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.