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Government Building

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

Government officials asserted the law will update the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

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

The government maintains that the extended workday is elective, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate faction – now the primary opposition – voting against the legislation, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that brought public transport and public services to a standstill.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the bill, saying the changes align Greek laws with modern labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide workers the option to take on extra work with the current company for increased pay, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

The measure follows EU working-time regulations, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek employees already work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Changes and Economic Context

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day working week for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

New laws, which started at the beginning of July, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Work Data and Greek Financial Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.