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Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a disputed labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, despite strong resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will modernize Greek work laws, but critics from the progressive party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted legislation, annual extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour week remains in place.

The government emphasizes that the longer shift is voluntary, solely applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary opposition – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing party did not vote.

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

Official Justification and Worker Safeguards

A senior official defended the legislation, saying the changes bring in line Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

These regulations will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

The measure follows European Union labor regulations, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the government of weakening employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization stated variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

Last year, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the beginning of July, permit workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

EU Work Data and Greek Economic Metrics

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• The country is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the EU.