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Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that permits 13-hour work shifts, despite fierce opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration asserted the measure will modernize the country's work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the newly enacted law, yearly extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour week continues as before.

Officials insists that the longer shift is voluntary, solely applies to the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing conservative party, with the centre-left faction – currently the main resistance – voting against the bill, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized two general strikes calling for the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the bill, saying the changes bring in line national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the option to accept extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for refusing overtime.

The measure complies with EU labor rules, which cap the average week to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Responses

But, critics have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue local employees already work longer hours than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Previous Workplace Changes and Financial Context

Last year, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a attempt to boost economic growth.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, allow workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Work Statistics and National Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in 2024, the highest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage was €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from the statistical office show.
• 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 European Union.