🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a contentious work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of widespread resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration asserted the measure will update the country's work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted legislation, annual overtime is capped at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government maintains that the extended workday is elective, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was supported by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate faction – currently the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that halted transportation and public services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the bill, stating the changes align national laws with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

The laws will give employees the option to accept extra work with the current company for increased pay, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for declining overtime.

The measure follows European Union working-time regulations, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Responses

But, critics have accused the government of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees already put in more time than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Financial Context

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific industries in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent legislation, which started at the beginning of July, permit workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

European Work Statistics and National Financial Metrics

• Across the European Union in 2024, the highest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, Greece's official base pay was €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the EU.