🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a contentious work legislation that authorizes 13-hour work shifts, in the face of strong opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will revamp the country's work laws, but critics from the progressive faction labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials maintains that the extended workday is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can only be implemented for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

The recent ballot was backed by lawmakers from the governing conservative party, with the moderate faction – currently the primary resistance – voting against the bill, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that halted transportation and public services to a stop.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, saying the changes align national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

The laws will give employees the option to accept extra work with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Labor Responses

But, critics have accused the government of weakening workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They argue local workers currently work longer hours than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Recent Workplace Reforms and Financial Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

New laws, which came into effect at the start of the summer, allow employees to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

EU Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Indicators

• Across the EU in 2024, the highest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, the nation's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the EU.