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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a contentious work legislation that permits 13-hour working days, despite fierce opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration asserted the measure will update the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing faction described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Provisions of the New Labor Law

Under the freshly approved law, annual overtime is also at 150 hours, while the standard forty-hour week continues as before.

The government emphasizes that the extended shift is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can only be used for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – currently the main resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, claiming the changes bring in line national legislation with modern labor-market conditions, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

This follows EU labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit flexibility over 12 months, according to the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Reactions

But, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue Greek employees already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Financial Context

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

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of the summer, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

EU Work Data and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, Greece's official base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an EU average of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the lowest in the European Union.