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Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a disputed labor reform that enables 13-hour work shifts, despite widespread resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will update Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the newly enacted law, yearly overtime is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek continues as before.

The government emphasizes that the longer shift is elective, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Government Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the bill, saying the reforms align Greek legislation with current labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

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

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, critics have charged the administration of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Background

Last year, Greece introduced a six-day working week for specific industries in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the start of the summer, permit employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to forty.

EU Work Data and National Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in 2024, the highest average hours were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, the nation's national minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.