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Government Building

The Greek parliament has ratified a contentious labor reform that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of strong opposition and countrywide protests.

Government officials stated the law will modernize the country's work laws, but critics from the left-wing party described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly extra hours is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek stays unchanged.

The government maintains that the extended shift is voluntary, only affects the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the governing centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – now the primary resistance – voting against the bill, while the left-wing group abstained.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests calling for the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and public services to a stop.

Government Defense and Worker Protections

A senior official defended the legislation, saying the reforms align national legislation with current employment realities, and alleged critics of misleading the public.

The laws will give workers the choice to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for declining extra hours.

The measure follows European Union working-time rules, which limit the average workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but permit flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have charged the administration of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek employees already put in more time than most Europeans while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Workplace Changes and Economic Background

In 2024, the country introduced a six-day working week for certain sectors in a bid to boost the economy.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, allow workers to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Labor Statistics and National Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• As of this year, Greece's national base pay 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 8.1% in August versus an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.