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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a hotly debated work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, despite widespread resistance and countrywide protests.

The administration asserted the measure will modernize the country's work laws, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Elements of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, annual overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials insists that the extended workday is voluntary, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

The recent ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing conservative party, with the moderate party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the bill, while the progressive group did not vote.

Labor unions have organized two general strikes demanding the bill's withdrawal this month that brought transportation and public services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, stating the changes align Greek laws with modern employment realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the citizens.

These regulations will provide workers the choice to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be fired for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours including extra hours but allow adjustments over 12 months, according to the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

But, opposition parties have accused the government of weakening employee protections and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They argue local employees currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost economic growth.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, allow employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as instead of 40.

EU Work Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Across the EU in the previous year, the longest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• Starting this year, Greece's official base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• The country is recovering since its prolonged financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards remain among the lowest in the European Union.