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Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a contentious labor reform that authorizes 13-hour work shifts, in the face of strong opposition and nationwide protests.

Government officials asserted the law will update the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

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

Officials insists that the longer workday is voluntary, only affects the business sector, and can only be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right political group, with the moderate faction – currently the main opposition – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing party abstained.

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

Government Justification and Employee Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, stating the reforms align national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for increased pay, while guaranteeing they cannot be fired for declining extra hours.

This follows EU labor regulations, which cap the mean week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over 12 months, according to the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the administration of weakening workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue local employees already put in more time than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

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

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Context

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

New legislation, which started at the start of July, permit workers to labor up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Labor Data and National Economic Metrics

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national base pay stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.