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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a disputed labor reform that permits extended-length working days, in the face of strong resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration claimed the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted law, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek remains in place.

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

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the bill, while the progressive group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and public services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the bill, saying the changes bring in line Greek laws with modern labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give workers the choice to accept additional hours with the current company for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which cap the average workweek to 48 hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, critics have accused the administration of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers currently work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Background

Last year, Greece enacted a six-day working week for certain sectors in a attempt to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, permit employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Labor Data and National Financial Metrics

• Across the European Union in 2024, the highest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.