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Government Building

Greece's parliament has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that permits extended-length working days, despite strong opposition and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the law will update Greek labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Labor Law

Under the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

Officials maintains that the extended shift is voluntary, only affects the private sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left party – currently the primary resistance – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

Worker organizations have staged two general strikes calling for the law's repeal recently that halted public transport and public services to a stop.

Official Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the changes align Greek laws with current employment conditions, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to accept additional hours with the same employer for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for declining overtime.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which limit the mean week to forty-eight hours including overtime but permit adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Reactions

However, critics have accused the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek employees already put in more time than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Economic Background

In 2024, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the start of July, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to forty.

European Labor Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• Starting this year, the nation's official minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.