The Greek Parliament Enacts Controversial Labor Law Allowing Longer Working Days in Specific Circumstances

Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a contentious work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of widespread resistance and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials stated the measure will modernize Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive party labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the newly enacted legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek remains in place.

The government insists that the longer shift is voluntary, solely affects the private sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was backed by MPs from the governing conservative party, with the moderate party – now the main resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive group did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that halted public transport and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Worker Protections

A senior official defended the bill, saying the reforms align national laws with modern labor-market realities, and accused critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will provide workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

This follows EU labor rules, which cap the average workweek to 48 hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

However, critics have accused the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a labor middle age." They say local employees currently work longer hours than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Changes and Economic Background

Last year, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a bid to stimulate economic growth.

New laws, which started at the start of the summer, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of 40.

EU Work Statistics and Greek Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an EU average of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the lowest in the EU.