The Greek Parliament Passes Disputed Workplace Law Permitting Extended Workdays in Specific Situations

Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that enables 13-hour work shifts, despite fierce opposition and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials asserted the law will revamp the country's labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the standard forty-hour week remains in place.

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

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by MPs from the ruling conservative political group, with the moderate faction – now the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive party abstained.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests demanding the law's repeal recently that halted public transport and public services to a standstill.

Official Justification and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the bill, saying the changes align national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

The laws will give employees the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

The measure follows European Union working-time rules, which limit the average week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, critics have accused the administration of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue local workers already put in more time than the majority of Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Financial Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

New laws, which came into effect at the start of July, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the highest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's official base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.