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Greece's legislature has approved a contentious labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, in the face of fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the measure will revamp the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Elements of the New Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved law, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

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

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the governing conservative political group, with the moderate party – now the main resistance – voting against the bill, while the progressive group abstained.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal this month that brought transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Justification and Employee Safeguards

A senior official supported the legislation, claiming the changes bring in line national legislation with modern employment realities, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for increased pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

The measure complies with EU labor regulations, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

But, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers currently work longer hours than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Context

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day working week for specific sectors in a attempt to boost the economy.

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

EU Labor Data and National Financial Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• Starting January 2025, Greece's official minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in the summer versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.