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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a contentious work legislation that enables 13-hour work shifts, despite widespread resistance and nationwide protests.

Government officials asserted the measure will modernize Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Labor Law

Under the newly enacted legislation, annual overtime is also at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek stays unchanged.

Officials emphasizes that the longer workday is elective, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

Thursday's vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary opposition – rejecting the bill, while the progressive group did not vote.

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

Official Defense and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister supported the bill, saying the changes bring in line Greek laws with modern employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give employees the option to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be fired for refusing overtime.

The measure complies with European Union labor rules, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours including overtime but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the government.

Critical Perspectives and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the administration of weakening workers' rights and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say local employees currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

New legislation, which started at the start of July, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

EU Work Data and National Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national base pay was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.