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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a hotly debated work legislation that permits 13-hour working days, despite strong opposition and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the measure will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted law, annual overtime is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour week continues as before.

Officials maintains that the longer workday is voluntary, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Support and Opposition

The recent vote was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the main opposition – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Worker Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, claiming the changes align Greek laws with modern employment realities, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

These regulations will provide employees the option to accept extra work with the current company for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with European Union working-time rules, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers already put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the start of July, allow workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Work Statistics and National Financial Metrics

• Across the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting this year, Greece's official minimum wage stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat show.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in recent years, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.