🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a contentious work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of widespread resistance and countrywide protests.

Government officials stated the law will modernize the country's work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly overtime is also at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour week continues as before.

Officials maintains that the longer workday is optional, solely affects the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate faction – now the main opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests calling for the law's repeal this month that halted public transport and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, stating the changes align national legislation with current labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the public.

These regulations will give workers the option to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

The measure complies with European Union labor rules, which cap the average week to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Responses

But, critics have accused the government of weakening workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers currently put in more time than most Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day working week for specific industries in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the start of July, allow workers to work up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Work Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• Starting this year, Greece's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.