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Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a disputed labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, despite widespread opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the measure will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly overtime is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government emphasizes that the longer shift is voluntary, only applies to the business sector, and can only be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the moderate faction – currently the main opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive party abstained.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that halted public transport and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

A senior official defended the bill, saying the reforms align Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for declining overtime.

This follows EU labor regulations, which cap the average week to 48 hours counting overtime but allow flexibility over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Responses

However, critics have accused the government of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers already put in more time than most EU citizens while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day working week for certain sectors in a attempt to boost the economy.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the start of July, allow employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Work Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the EU.