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Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes extended-length working days, despite widespread opposition and nationwide protests.

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

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, annual overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials emphasizes that the extended workday is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the ruling conservative political group, with the centre-left faction – now the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that brought public transport and public services to a stop.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the bill, stating the reforms bring in line national legislation with modern employment realities, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will give employees the choice to accept extra work with the same employer for increased pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

The measure complies with European Union labor rules, which cap the average week to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Reactions

But, critics have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue local workers currently work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day working week for specific sectors in a bid to stimulate the economy.

New legislation, which started at the start of the summer, allow workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

EU Labor Data and National Financial Metrics

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• Starting this year, Greece's national minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat show.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.