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Government Building

Greece's legislature has given the green light a hotly debated labor reform that enables extended-length work shifts, despite widespread opposition and countrywide strike actions.

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

Main Provisions of the New Labor Law

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at 150 hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek continues as before.

The government emphasizes that the extended workday is elective, only applies to the business sector, and can only be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left party – currently the primary opposition – rejecting the bill, while the progressive party abstained.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and services to a stop.

Official Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official defended the bill, saying the changes align Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be fired for refusing extra hours.

The measure complies with European Union labor rules, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but allow flexibility over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

However, opposition parties have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue local workers already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Workplace Reforms and Economic Context

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a attempt to boost economic growth.

New legislation, which started at the start of the summer, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Labor Data and Greek Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national minimum wage was €968 a month, ranking it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the EU.