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Greece's legislature has approved a hotly debated labor reform that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of strong resistance and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials stated the measure will update Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, annual extra hours is limited at 150 hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

The government maintains that the extended workday is voluntary, solely affects the private sector, and can only be implemented for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – now the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive party did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal this month that brought public transport and public services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, saying the reforms align Greek legislation with modern employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give workers the choice to accept extra work with the same employer for increased compensation, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing extra hours.

This follows EU working-time rules, which limit the average workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit flexibility over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

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

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a bid to stimulate the economy.

New legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, allow workers to labor up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Work Statistics and National Economic Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the longest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in the summer versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from the statistical office show.
• The country is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.