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Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a hotly debated labor reform that enables 13-hour working days, despite strong opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration stated the measure will modernize the country's work laws, but critics from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the New Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted legislation, yearly overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials emphasizes that the extended workday is elective, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

Thursday's vote was supported by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary opposition – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

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

Official Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, stating the reforms bring in line Greek legislation with modern employment realities, and accused critics of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give employees the option to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

The measure complies with European Union working-time rules, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, as stated by the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Reactions

But, critics have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They argue local workers already put in more time than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in reality mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day working week for certain industries in a bid to stimulate the economy.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the beginning of July, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to forty.

EU Work Data and Greek Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the longest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's official base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.