🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek parliament has ratified a disputed work legislation that permits 13-hour working days, in the face of fierce resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will update the country's labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing party described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government emphasizes that the longer workday is optional, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate faction – currently the primary resistance – voting against the bill, while the left-wing group abstained.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and public services to a standstill.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the legislation, claiming the reforms bring in line Greek laws with modern employment realities, and accused critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will give workers the choice to accept extra work with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

This follows EU labor rules, which cap the mean week to forty-eight hours including overtime but permit flexibility over 12 months, according to the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Reactions

But, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue local workers already put in more time than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Changes and Economic Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of the summer, allow workers to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

EU Labor Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the highest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's official base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from the statistical office show.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.