Greece Passes Controversial Labor Legislation Permitting 13-Hour Working Days in Specific Cases

Government Building

The Greek legislature has approved a hotly debated work legislation that permits 13-hour work shifts, in the face of widespread resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration stated the measure will revamp Greek work laws, but critics from the progressive party described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the newly enacted legislation, annual overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour week continues as before.

The government insists that the longer workday is optional, solely affects the private sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

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

Government Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official defended the bill, claiming the reforms align national laws with modern labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will give employees the option to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be fired for declining extra hours.

The measure complies with EU labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Responses

However, critics have accused the administration of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say local employees already work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day working week for certain industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

New laws, which started at the beginning of July, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40.

European Work Statistics and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's national base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office show.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the EU.