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Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a contentious labor reform that permits 13-hour work shifts, in the face of fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will modernize Greek labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing faction described it as a "harmful law."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the newly enacted law, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

Officials maintains that the extended shift is elective, solely affects the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – currently the main resistance – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a standstill.

Official Justification and Worker Protections

The Labor Minister supported the bill, claiming the reforms align Greek laws with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

The laws will provide workers the option to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

The measure follows European Union labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but allow adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They say local workers currently work longer hours than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of excessive labor."

Recent Workplace Changes and Economic Context

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a bid to stimulate the economy.

New laws, which started at the start of July, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• Starting this year, Greece's national base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in recent years, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.