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Government Building

The Greek legislature has given the green light a contentious labor reform that enables 13-hour work shifts, in the face of strong opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration asserted the measure will revamp Greek labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted law, yearly overtime is limited at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour week remains in place.

Officials insists that the extended workday is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – currently the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

Worker organizations have organized two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that halted transportation and services to a standstill.

Official Justification and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, saying the changes bring in line national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused critics of misinforming the citizens.

These regulations will provide workers the choice to accept extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time regulations, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but allow flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

But, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving the country back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers currently put in more time than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Recent Workplace Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain industries in a bid to stimulate the economy.

New laws, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, allow employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

EU Labor Data and National Financial Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the highest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's official base pay stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and quality of life remain among the poorest in the European Union.