🔗 Share this article

Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that permits extended-length working days, in the face of strong resistance and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials stated the law will update the country's labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Elements of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, yearly overtime is also at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials emphasizes that the longer workday is voluntary, solely applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be used for up to 37 days each year.

Political Support and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – currently the main opposition – rejecting the bill, while the progressive party did not vote.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and public services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, claiming the changes bring in line Greek laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the choice to accept extra work with the current company for increased pay, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for declining overtime.

This follows EU working-time rules, which cap the mean week to 48 hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, as stated by the government.

Critical Perspectives and Labor Responses

However, opposition parties have accused the government of weakening workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers currently put in more time than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Recent Labor Changes and Financial Background

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

New legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Work Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in 2024, the longest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, Greece's national minimum wage was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an EU average of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.