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Government Building

Greece's parliament has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that enables extended-length working days, despite fierce resistance and countrywide protests.

The administration claimed the law will update Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the New Labor Law

Under the freshly approved legislation, annual extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour week continues as before.

Officials insists that the longer shift is elective, solely affects the business sector, and can only be used for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Support and Opposition

Thursday's ballot was backed by lawmakers from the governing conservative party, with the centre-left party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and public services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Worker Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, claiming the reforms bring in line national legislation with modern employment conditions, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

This complies with European Union labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

But, opposition parties have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue local workers currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Context

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

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of July, allow employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and Greek Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in 2024, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national base pay stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and quality of life remain among the lowest in the EU.