Greece Approves Disputed Labor Law Authorizing Extended Working Days in Certain Cases

Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a disputed labor reform that permits extended-length work shifts, despite widespread resistance and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the law will update the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is also at 150 hours, while the standard forty-hour week stays unchanged.

The government emphasizes that the longer shift is optional, only affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Political Backing and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left party – now the primary resistance – voting against the bill, while the progressive party abstained.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, stating the reforms align national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the option to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

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

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

But, opposition parties have accused the administration of eroding employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say local workers already put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a attempt to boost economic growth.

New laws, which came into effect at the start of July, allow workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to forty.

EU Labor Data and Greek Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, the nation's official base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an EU average of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but wages and quality of life remain among the lowest in the EU.