🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's parliament has ratified a disputed work legislation that enables extended-length working days, in the face of widespread opposition and countrywide protests.

Government officials claimed the measure will revamp the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing party labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Labor Law

Under the newly enacted law, annual overtime is also at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials maintains that the extended shift is voluntary, only affects the private sector, and can only be implemented for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by MPs from the ruling conservative party, with the centre-left faction – now the primary resistance – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, saying the changes align Greek laws with current employment conditions, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

The laws will provide employees the option to take on additional hours with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This follows EU labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They say Greek employees already put in more time than the majority of 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 standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of the summer, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

EU Labor Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the highest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• Starting this year, the nation's official base pay was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of 5.9%, data from the statistical office show.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and quality of life remain among the lowest in the European Union.