Greece Approves Disputed Labor Legislation Allowing Longer Working Days in Specific Situations

Government Building

Greece's parliament has ratified a disputed work legislation that permits extended-length work shifts, in the face of widespread resistance and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the law will modernize Greek work laws, but critics from the progressive party labeled it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour week continues as before.

Officials emphasizes that the extended workday is optional, only affects the business sector, and can only be implemented for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the main opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, saying the reforms bring in line Greek legislation with modern labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will give employees the option to take on additional hours with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time regulations, which limit the mean week to 48 hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding employee protections and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say local employees currently work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the start of the summer, permit employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and Greek Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in the previous year, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's official minimum wage stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the lowest in the EU.