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Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that permits extended-length working days, despite strong resistance and countrywide protests.

The administration stated the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Provisions of the New Work Legislation

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

Officials insists that the extended shift is elective, only affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was backed by MPs from the ruling conservative political group, with the moderate party – now the main opposition – voting against the bill, while the left-wing party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and services to a stop.

Government Justification and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the bill, stating the changes bring in line national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the choice to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

The measure complies with EU labor regulations, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but permit adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Responses

But, critics have accused the administration of weakening workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue Greek employees already put in more time than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Context

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day working week for certain industries in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent laws, which started at the start of July, allow employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

EU Work Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the lowest in the EU.