🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek legislature has given the green light a disputed work legislation that enables extended-length work shifts, in the face of strong resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the law will modernize Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

Under the newly enacted legislation, yearly overtime is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week stays unchanged.

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

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling conservative party, with the moderate faction – currently the primary opposition – voting against the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and public services to a stop.

Official Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, stating the changes bring in line national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

The laws will provide workers the option to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with EU working-time rules, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, critics have accused the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say local employees currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in reality mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day working week for specific industries in a attempt to boost economic growth.

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of July, permit workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Work Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• Starting January 2025, the nation's official base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the lowest in the EU.