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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes 13-hour working days, in the face of widespread opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the measure will revamp Greek labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour week stays unchanged.

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

Political Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was supported by MPs from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – now the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests demanding the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and services to a stop.

Official Defense and Employee Safeguards

A senior official defended the bill, claiming the reforms align Greek legislation with current employment realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give workers the choice to accept extra work with the same employer for increased pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

This follows European Union working-time rules, which cap the average week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Labor Responses

However, opposition parties have accused the government of weakening employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They say local workers 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 standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for certain industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

New legislation, which started at the beginning of July, allow workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Work Data and Greek Financial Metrics

• Across the EU in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, according to EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, the nation's official base pay was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office show.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and quality of life remain among the poorest in the EU.