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Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that enables 13-hour working days, despite fierce resistance and countrywide protests.

The administration claimed the measure will modernize the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the New Labor Law

Under the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials emphasizes that the longer workday is elective, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

Thursday's vote was backed by MPs from the governing centre-right political group, with the moderate party – currently the main resistance – voting against the bill, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a stop.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, stating the reforms bring in line national legislation with current employment realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to accept additional hours with the current company for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for declining overtime.

The measure follows European Union labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but allow flexibility over 12 months, according to the government.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

However, critics have charged the administration of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers currently work longer hours than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific industries in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to 40.

European Labor Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.