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Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a contentious labor reform that permits extended-length working days, despite fierce opposition and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials asserted the measure will revamp the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing party described it as a "harmful law."

Key Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, annual extra hours is also at 150 hours, while the standard 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials emphasizes that the extended workday is voluntary, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

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

Worker organizations have organized two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a stop.

Official Justification and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister supported the bill, saying the reforms bring in line Greek laws with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give employees the option to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher compensation, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU working-time rules, which limit the mean week to 48 hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, as stated by the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, critics have accused the government of weakening workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers already put in more time than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of family and social life and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Workplace Changes and Financial Context

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain industries in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

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

EU Work Statistics and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, the nation's official minimum wage was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its prolonged financial troubles, which concluded in recent years, but salaries and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.