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Government Building

The Greek legislature has approved a disputed work legislation that enables extended-length work shifts, in the face of widespread opposition and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials stated the law will modernize Greek work laws, but critics from the progressive party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Provisions of the New Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted legislation, annual extra hours is also at 150 hours, while the standard forty-hour week remains in place.

The government insists that the longer shift is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing conservative political group, with the moderate faction – currently the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal this month that halted public transport and public services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the bill, stating the reforms align national legislation with current employment conditions, and accused critics of misinforming the citizens.

These regulations will give employees the option to accept additional hours with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This follows EU working-time rules, which cap the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but allow flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek workers already work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Changes and Economic Context

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

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

European Labor Data and Greek Financial Indicators

• Throughout the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of this year, the nation's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high 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 Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the EU.