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Government Building

Greece's parliament has given the green light a contentious work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of fierce opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration asserted the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is also at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek remains in place.

The government maintains that the longer workday is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – currently the main resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister supported the bill, saying the changes bring in line national legislation with current employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they cannot be fired for refusing overtime.

The measure complies with European Union working-time rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but allow adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

But, opposition parties have charged the government of weakening workers' rights and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say local employees already put in more time than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a bid to stimulate economic growth.

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of the summer, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

EU Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest average hours were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• Starting this year, the nation's national minimum wage stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer versus an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.