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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a hotly debated labor reform that enables 13-hour working days, in the face of strong resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration stated the law will revamp Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour week remains in place.

Officials insists that the extended workday is elective, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to 37 days annually.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left party – now the main resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive group abstained.

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

Official Justification and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, stating the changes bring in line Greek laws with modern employment realities, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will provide workers the option to take on additional hours with the current company for increased pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

This follows European Union working-time regulations, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have charged the government of weakening workers' rights and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees already work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Changes and Financial Background

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of July, allow employees to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in the summer versus an EU average of 5.9%, figures from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.