🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek parliament has ratified a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes extended-length work shifts, despite fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials asserted the law will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the newly enacted law, annual extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week remains in place.

The government insists that the longer workday is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

Thursday's ballot was supported by lawmakers from the governing centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – now the main opposition – rejecting the bill, while the progressive party did not vote.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that halted transportation and services to a stop.

Government Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official supported the bill, stating the changes bring in line national laws with modern labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give employees the option to accept extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for refusing overtime.

The measure follows European Union labor regulations, which cap the mean week to forty-eight hours counting overtime but permit adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the government.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

But, critics have charged the administration of weakening employee protections and "pushing the country back to a labor middle age." They argue local employees currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Workplace Changes and Economic Background

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for certain industries in a attempt to boost the economy.

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

European Work Data and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, Greece's official minimum wage stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August compared with an EU average of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat show.
• The country is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the EU.