🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a contentious labor reform that enables extended-length working days, in the face of strong 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 Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week continues as before.

Officials insists that the extended shift is optional, solely applies to the private sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

Thursday's ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that halted transportation and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the reforms align national laws with modern labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

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

The measure complies with European Union working-time regulations, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Responses

But, opposition parties have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They say local workers already work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day working week for certain sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the start of July, permit employees to labor up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to 40.

EU Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an EU average of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office show.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and quality of life remain among the poorest in the EU.