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Government Building

Greece's parliament has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that enables extended-length work shifts, despite strong opposition and nationwide protests.

Government officials stated the law will update the country's work laws, but critics from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials maintains that the extended shift is voluntary, only applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing conservative political group, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive party abstained.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the law's repeal this month that brought public transport and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, saying the changes bring in line national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

The laws will provide workers the option to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

This follows European Union working-time rules, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say local workers currently work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Workplace Changes and Economic Context

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

New legislation, which started at the start of July, allow employees to labor up to 48 hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Work Data and Greek Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's official base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in August versus an EU average of 5.9%, figures from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which ended in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.