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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a hotly debated labor reform that permits 13-hour work shifts, despite strong resistance and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials stated the law will revamp the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials maintains that the longer workday is voluntary, solely affects the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the bill, while the progressive group abstained.

Worker organizations have organized two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that halted public transport and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the changes bring in line Greek laws with current labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to take on extra work with the current company for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

This complies with EU labor rules, which limit the average week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow adjustments over 12 months, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Reactions

But, critics have accused the administration of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Context

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

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

EU Work Statistics and Greek Economic Indicators

• Across the EU in the previous year, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's national base pay was €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but wages and quality of life remain among the lowest in the EU.