🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a hotly debated work legislation that permits 13-hour work shifts, in the face of strong resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive party described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, annual extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the standard forty-hour week remains in place.

The government maintains that the longer workday is optional, only affects the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

The recent vote was supported by MPs from the governing conservative political group, with the moderate party – currently the main opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive group abstained.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Safeguards

A senior official defended the bill, saying the changes align national laws with current labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which limit the mean week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Labor Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Changes and Financial Context

Last year, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the start of the summer, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Work Statistics and Greek Financial Indicators

• Across the European Union in 2024, the highest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• As of this year, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an EU average of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.