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Government Building

The Greek legislature has given the green light a disputed work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of strong resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the measure will revamp the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive party labeled it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

Under the freshly approved law, annual overtime is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek continues as before.

The government insists that the longer shift is optional, solely affects the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was supported by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests calling for the law's repeal this month that halted transportation and public services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the changes align national legislation with modern labor-market conditions, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the choice to accept additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

The measure complies with European Union working-time regulations, which limit the average workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, critics have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek 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 end of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

New legislation, which started at the beginning of July, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to 40.

EU Labor Data and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the EU in 2024, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's national base pay stood at €968 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 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• The country is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the EU.