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Government Building

Greece's parliament has ratified a contentious work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, despite widespread opposition and nationwide protests.

The administration asserted the law will modernize the country's work laws, but critics from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour week continues as before.

The government insists that the longer shift is elective, only applies to the private sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – now the primary resistance – voting against the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that brought public transport and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, claiming the changes align national laws with modern labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

The measure follows EU working-time rules, which cap the mean week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

However, critics have charged the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They argue local employees currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for specific sectors in a attempt to boost the economy.

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of the summer, permit employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to forty.

EU Work Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the highest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of this year, Greece's official minimum wage stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an European mean of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and quality of life remain among the lowest in the EU.