🔗 Share this article Greece Passes Debated Labor Law Allowing 13-Hour Workdays in Specific Circumstances Government Building Greece's parliament has given the green light a contentious work legislation that permits 13-hour working days, despite widespread resistance and nationwide strike actions. Government officials claimed the law will update the country's labor regulations, but critics from the progressive faction described it as a "harmful law." Key Provisions of the Recently Passed 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 stays unchanged. Officials insists that the longer shift is optional, only affects the private sector, and can only be implemented for up to thirty-seven days each year. Parliamentary Support and Opposition Thursday's ballot was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right political group, with the centre-left faction – now the main resistance – voting against the bill, while the progressive group abstained. Labor unions have staged two general strikes calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a stop. Official Justification and Employee Safeguards The Labor Minister defended the legislation, claiming the changes bring in line national laws with current labor-market realities, and accused critics of misinforming the public. These regulations will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the current company for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours. The measure complies with European Union labor regulations, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but allow adjustments over a year, as stated by the government. Critical Perspectives and Labor Responses However, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek employees already work longer hours than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties." A major labor organization stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation." Recent Workplace Changes and Economic Context In 2024, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain industries in a attempt to stimulate the economy. Recent legislation, which started at the beginning of the summer, allow workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as opposed to 40. European Labor Data and National Financial Indicators Across the EU in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8). The lowest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics. As of January 2025, Greece's official base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among European nations. Joblessness, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show. Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.