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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a hotly debated work legislation that enables extended-length work shifts, despite widespread opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration stated the measure will update the country's work laws, but critics from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted legislation, annual overtime is capped at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour week continues as before.

The government insists that the longer shift is elective, only affects the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to 37 days annually.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the governing conservative party, with the centre-left party – currently the primary opposition – voting against the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that brought public transport and public services to a stop.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the bill, claiming the changes align national laws with current employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will give employees the choice to accept additional hours with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

The measure follows EU working-time rules, which cap the mean week to 48 hours including overtime but allow flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the government of weakening employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They say local employees currently work longer hours than most Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Context

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

New laws, which came into effect at the start of July, permit employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as instead of 40.

European Labor Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in 2024, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of this year, the nation's official base pay was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer versus an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.