🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's parliament has given the green light a disputed work legislation that permits extended-length working days, despite widespread resistance and nationwide protests.

Government officials asserted the law will revamp the country's work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

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

Officials maintains that the longer shift is elective, solely applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate faction – currently the main resistance – voting against the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that halted public transport and public services to a stop.

Government Defense and Worker Protections

The Labor Minister defended the bill, stating the reforms align national legislation with modern employment realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will provide employees the option to accept extra work with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This follows European Union labor rules, which cap the mean week to 48 hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

However, critics have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek workers already work longer hours than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

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

European Labor Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the EU.