🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's parliament has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that permits extended-length working days, despite fierce resistance and countrywide protests.

Government officials stated the law will update Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government insists that the extended shift is elective, solely affects the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left party – currently the main opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Employee Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, claiming the changes bring in line Greek laws with modern labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will provide workers the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This follows European Union working-time regulations, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition 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 Greek employees already work longer hours than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Financial Background

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

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of July, permit workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting this year, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer versus an EU average of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.