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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a hotly debated labor reform that enables 13-hour working days, despite widespread resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will update Greek labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, yearly overtime is capped at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour week stays unchanged.

Officials emphasizes that the extended workday is elective, only affects the private sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

The recent vote was supported by MPs from the ruling conservative political group, with the centre-left faction – now the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the left-wing group abstained.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes calling for the law's repeal this month that halted public transport and public services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the bill, saying the changes bring in line Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will provide employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing overtime.

This follows EU working-time regulations, which limit the mean week to 48 hours counting overtime but permit flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

But, critics have accused the administration of weakening workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue Greek employees already put in more time than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Reforms and Financial Background

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

New legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, permit workers to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

EU Work Data and Greek Financial Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's official minimum wage was €968 a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which concluded in recent years, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.