Greece Enacts Disputed Labor Legislation Permitting 13-Hour Working Days in Specific Situations

Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a disputed labor reform that authorizes 13-hour work shifts, despite widespread resistance and nationwide strike actions.

Government officials asserted the law will revamp the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the progressive faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Main Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, yearly overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour week stays unchanged.

The government maintains that the longer workday is elective, solely affects the business sector, and can exclusively be applied for up to thirty-seven days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by MPs from the governing centre-right political group, with the centre-left party – now the primary opposition – rejecting the legislation, while the progressive group abstained.

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

Government Defense and Employee Protections

A senior official supported the bill, saying the changes bring in line national legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide employees the option to accept extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be fired for refusing overtime.

This follows European Union labor regulations, which limit the mean workweek to 48 hours counting overtime but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Union Reactions

But, opposition parties have charged the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving the country back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek employees currently put in more time than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the standard workday, the disruption of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Financial Background

Last year, the country introduced a six-day working week for specific industries in a bid to boost the economy.

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of July, allow employees to work up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and Greek Financial Indicators

• Throughout the EU in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, according to Eurostat.
• Starting this year, Greece's official base pay stood at €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at 28% during the economic downturn, was eight point one percent in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, data from Eurostat show.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.