🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a disputed work legislation that enables extended-length working days, despite strong opposition and nationwide protests.

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

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Labor Law

Under the newly enacted law, yearly overtime is also at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour week stays unchanged.

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

Political Support and Resistance

The recent ballot was backed by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate faction – currently the main resistance – rejecting the bill, while the progressive group abstained.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that halted transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, saying the changes bring in line Greek legislation with current employment conditions, and accused critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the choice to take on additional hours with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

The measure follows EU labor regulations, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, as stated by the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

However, critics have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers 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 practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a attempt to boost economic growth.

Recent laws, which started at the start of the summer, permit workers to labor up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to 40.

European Labor Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• Starting this year, the nation's official base pay stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the EU.