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Government Building

Greece's legislature has approved a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes extended-length work shifts, in the face of fierce opposition and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive party described it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, annual extra hours is limited at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government insists that the extended workday is optional, only affects the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling conservative political group, with the centre-left party – currently the main resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes demanding the law's repeal this month that halted transportation and public services to a standstill.

Official Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official defended the bill, saying the reforms bring in line national laws with modern labor-market realities, and accused critics of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give employees the choice to take on extra work with the current company for increased pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This complies with European Union labor regulations, which limit the average week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, critics have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a attempt to boost the economy.

New laws, which came into effect at the start of July, permit employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

EU Labor Data and National Economic Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's official base pay was €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.