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Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a disputed labor reform that authorizes extended-length work shifts, in the face of widespread resistance and nationwide strike actions.

The administration stated the measure will modernize the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing party described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek remains in place.

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

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the main opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive group did not vote.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal this month that brought public transport and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the reforms bring in line national legislation with modern labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misleading the citizens.

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

This complies with EU working-time rules, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow adjustments over 12 months, according to the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Responses

But, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say local employees currently put in more time than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Financial Background

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day working week for certain industries in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of the summer, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

EU Labor Statistics and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's official base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.