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Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes extended-length working days, despite fierce opposition and countrywide protests.

The administration claimed the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing party described it as a "harmful law."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted legislation, yearly extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

Officials maintains that the longer shift is voluntary, solely affects the private sector, and can only be used for up to 37 days annually.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the governing conservative political group, with the centre-left faction – now the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive group abstained.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that brought transportation and services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Worker Protections

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the reforms align Greek legislation with current employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

The laws will provide employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for increased pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with EU labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours including overtime but permit adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

But, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue local employees currently put in more time than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for certain industries in a bid to stimulate economic growth.

New legislation, which started at the beginning of the summer, permit workers to labor up to 48 hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Labor Data and Greek Economic Indicators

• Across the European Union in 2024, the highest average hours were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting this year, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.