The Greek Parliament Approves Disputed Workplace Law Authorizing Longer Working Days in Specific Situations

Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that authorizes 13-hour working days, despite strong resistance and nationwide protests.

The administration stated the measure will modernize Greek labor regulations, but critics from the progressive party described it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek remains in place.

The government emphasizes that the extended workday is elective, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – now the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that halted public transport and services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, stating the reforms align national laws with modern labor-market conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

The laws will provide employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time regulations, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Reactions

However, critics have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek employees already work longer hours than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Changes and Economic Background

Last year, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent laws, which started at the start of the summer, allow workers to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of 5.9%, figures from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but salaries and quality of life remain among the poorest in the European Union.