🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a hotly debated work legislation that authorizes 13-hour work shifts, despite widespread opposition and nationwide protests.

The administration asserted the law will modernize the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved legislation, annual overtime is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour week remains in place.

The government insists that the longer workday is elective, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days annually.

Political Backing and Resistance

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

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that halted transportation and public services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official supported the legislation, saying the reforms bring in line national legislation with current labor-market realities, and accused critics of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the option to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

The measure complies with EU labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Responses

But, opposition parties have accused the government of weakening employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They say local employees already work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a bid to stimulate economic growth.

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of July, permit employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Work Data and National Economic Indicators

• Across the European Union in 2024, the highest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• As of this year, Greece's national minimum wage stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.