🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a disputed labor reform that enables extended-length work shifts, in the face of strong opposition and nationwide protests.

Government officials asserted the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive party described it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly overtime is also at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour week stays unchanged.

Officials insists that the longer shift is voluntary, solely affects the private sector, and can only be used for up to 37 days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left party – currently the main opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive group did not vote.

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

Government Justification and Employee Protections

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, stating the changes align national laws with modern labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misleading the public.

The laws will provide workers the choice to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while guaranteeing they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

This follows European Union labor rules, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but allow adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the administration of weakening workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek workers currently put in more time than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a attempt to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the start of the summer, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Labor Data and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the highest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office show.
• The country is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which concluded in recent years, but wages and quality of life remain among the poorest in the European Union.