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Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a contentious labor reform that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of fierce opposition and nationwide strike actions.

The administration claimed the measure will modernize the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing party labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

Under the newly enacted legislation, yearly extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

Officials insists that the extended workday is optional, only affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by lawmakers from the ruling conservative party, with the moderate faction – now the primary resistance – voting against the bill, while the progressive party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests calling for the law's repeal recently that brought public transport and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the changes align national laws with modern employment realities, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will provide employees the choice to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time regulations, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Reactions

But, critics have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a labor middle age." They argue local workers already work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Changes and Financial Context

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a bid to stimulate economic growth.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, allow workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and National Economic Indicators

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of this year, 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 economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in recent years, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.