The Greek Parliament Passes Disputed Labor Legislation Authorizing 13-Hour Workdays in Specific Circumstances

Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes 13-hour work shifts, despite strong opposition and countrywide strike actions.

The administration claimed the law will modernize Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the left-wing party described it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week remains in place.

The government emphasizes that the longer workday is elective, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate party – currently the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

A senior official defended the bill, saying the reforms bring in line Greek laws with modern employment conditions, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide workers the option to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

The measure follows EU working-time regulations, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

However, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving 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."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Background

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

Recent legislation, which started at the beginning of July, permit workers to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as instead of forty.

EU Work Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to EU statistics.
• As of this year, Greece's national base pay stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and quality of life remain among the poorest in the EU.