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Government Building

Greece's parliament has given the green light a hotly debated labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, despite fierce resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration stated the measure will update the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved law, annual overtime is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek stays unchanged.

Officials insists that the extended workday is elective, solely affects the private sector, and can only be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – now the primary resistance – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

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

Official Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, stating the reforms align Greek laws with modern employment realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will give workers the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for declining overtime.

The measure complies with European Union labor rules, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but allow adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have charged the administration of weakening workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers currently put in more time than most Europeans 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 personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Background

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost the economy.

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

European Work Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Across the European Union in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• As of this year, Greece's official base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an EU average of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat show.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.