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Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that permits 13-hour work shifts, despite widespread resistance and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials stated the measure will revamp the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party described it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is also at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials emphasizes that the extended workday is optional, only applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing group abstained.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal this month that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, stating the reforms align national legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to take on additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

This follows European Union working-time rules, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

But, critics have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They argue Greek employees currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Previous Workplace Reforms and Financial Context

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the start of the summer, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Work Statistics and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national base pay was €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the EU.