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Government Building

The Greek parliament has ratified a contentious labor reform that enables 13-hour working days, despite fierce opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the law will revamp the country's labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing party labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

Under the newly enacted legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek continues as before.

The government insists that the extended shift is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – currently the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and public services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Employee Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, saying the reforms align national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the option to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

This follows EU labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but permit flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Responses

However, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Context

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific sectors in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of the summer, allow employees to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Work Statistics and Greek Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in the previous year, the highest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of this year, the nation's official minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of 5.9%, data from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.