Greece Approves Controversial Workplace Legislation Authorizing Extended Working Days in Certain Circumstances

Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a hotly debated labor reform that enables 13-hour working days, despite widespread resistance and nationwide protests.

The administration claimed the law will revamp Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government maintains that the longer workday is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

Thursday's vote was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – now the main opposition – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing party abstained.

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

Government Justification and Worker Protections

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, stating the changes align national laws with current employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but permit flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

But, critics have accused the government of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They say local employees already put in more time than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Financial Background

Last year, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a bid to boost the economy.

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

European Work Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting this year, Greece's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.