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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a hotly debated labor reform that enables 13-hour work shifts, despite widespread opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will revamp Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

Under the newly enacted law, yearly overtime is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek continues as before.

The government emphasizes that the extended workday is optional, only applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

Thursday's vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing conservative party, with the moderate party – currently the main opposition – voting against the legislation, while the progressive group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the law's repeal this month that brought transportation and public services to a stop.

Official Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the legislation, claiming the reforms align Greek laws with modern employment realities, and accused critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will give employees the choice to accept extra work with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for declining overtime.

This complies with EU labor rules, which limit the average week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Reactions

But, critics have accused the administration of weakening employee protections and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They argue Greek workers already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union 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."

Recent Labor Changes and Financial Context

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain industries in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

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

EU Work Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national base pay was €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.