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Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a disputed labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, despite fierce resistance and nationwide protests.

The administration asserted the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

Under the freshly approved law, annual extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek remains in place.

The government emphasizes that the longer workday is optional, only affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Political Support and Opposition

Thursday's vote was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left party – now the main resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

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

Official Justification and Worker Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, saying the reforms align national laws with modern labor-market conditions, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

The measure follows EU labor regulations, which limit the mean week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

However, critics have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek workers already work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Context

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

New legislation, which started at the start of the summer, allow employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Financial Indicators

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• Starting this year, Greece's official base pay was €968 a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from the statistical office show.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the EU.