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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a contentious labor reform that enables extended-length working days, despite fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the measure will update Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week stays unchanged.

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

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

Thursday's vote was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right political group, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive 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 stop.

Official Justification and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, saying the changes align national legislation with modern labor-market conditions, and alleged opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

These regulations will give workers the option to take on extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which cap the mean week to forty-eight hours including overtime but allow adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

But, opposition parties have charged the administration of weakening workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees already put in more time than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

Last year, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a bid to boost the economy.

New laws, which started at the beginning of the summer, permit employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the EU.