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Government Building

The Greek legislature has approved a hotly debated work legislation that permits 13-hour working days, despite fierce resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration asserted the measure will revamp the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing 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 standard forty-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials maintains that the extended workday is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can only be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Political Backing and Opposition

Thursday's ballot was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right political group, with the moderate party – now the main opposition – rejecting the bill, while the progressive group did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that brought public transport and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, claiming the reforms align Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

The laws will provide employees the choice to take on extra work with the current company for increased pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which limit the mean week to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Labor Responses

But, opposition parties have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They say local workers already put in more time than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent legislation, which started at the beginning of July, permit employees to labor up to 48 hours in a week as instead of 40.

EU Labor Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office show.
• The country is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.