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The Greek parliament has given the green light a hotly debated work legislation that permits extended-length working days, despite strong resistance and nationwide protests.

Government officials claimed the law will revamp the country's work laws, but critics from the progressive party labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the freshly approved legislation, yearly overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard 40-hour week remains in place.

Officials emphasizes that the longer workday is elective, solely applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the moderate party – now the primary resistance – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive party did not vote.

Labor unions have staged two general strikes demanding the law's repeal recently that brought public transport and services to a standstill.

Official Defense and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the bill, saying the changes align national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be fired for declining extra hours.

The measure follows EU labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but permit flexibility over 12 months, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Reactions

But, critics have accused the administration of eroding employee protections and "pushing the nation back to a labor middle age." They say Greek workers already put in more time than most EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said flexible working hours in reality mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Changes and Economic Background

In 2024, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a attempt to boost the economy.

New legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, allow workers to work up to 48 hours in a week as instead of 40.

EU Work Data and National Financial Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from the statistical office show.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the EU.