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Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes 13-hour working days, despite fierce opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration claimed the law will update the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing faction described it as a "harmful law."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour week continues as before.

The government emphasizes that the extended workday is elective, solely applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing conservative party, with the moderate party – currently the primary opposition – rejecting the bill, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, claiming the reforms bring in line Greek legislation with current labor-market realities, and accused critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to take on extra work with the current company for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing overtime.

The measure complies with EU labor regulations, which limit the mean week to 48 hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the administration of eroding workers' rights and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Financial Background

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for specific sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, permit employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

European Labor Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• As of this year, Greece's national minimum wage was €968 a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards remain among the lowest in the EU.