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Government Building

Greece's parliament has approved a disputed work legislation that enables 13-hour work shifts, despite fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

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

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

Under the newly enacted legislation, annual extra hours is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials insists that the longer shift is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by MPs from the governing conservative party, with the moderate faction – now the main opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing party abstained.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes calling for the law's repeal recently that brought transportation and public services to a standstill.

Official Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the legislation, saying the changes align Greek legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will give workers the option to take on extra work with the current company for increased pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing overtime.

The measure follows European Union working-time regulations, which limit the mean week to 48 hours counting overtime but allow flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Responses

But, critics have accused the administration of weakening employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek employees currently work longer hours than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day working week for specific industries in a bid to stimulate the economy.

Recent laws, which came into effect at the start of the summer, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as instead of 40.

European Work Statistics and National Economic Indicators

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August versus an European mean of 5.9%, figures from the statistical office show.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the EU.