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Greece's legislature has approved a disputed labor reform that enables extended-length work shifts, despite widespread resistance and countrywide protests.

The administration asserted the law will modernize Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the freshly approved law, annual overtime is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

Officials insists that the extended shift is optional, only affects the private sector, and can only be applied for up to 37 days annually.

Political Support and Opposition

The recent vote was backed by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right political group, with the moderate faction – now the main opposition – voting against the bill, while the left-wing group did not vote.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, saying the changes bring in line national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will provide workers the option to take on additional hours with the current company for increased compensation, while guaranteeing they cannot be dismissed for declining overtime.

This follows EU labor rules, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including overtime but allow adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

However, critics have accused the government of weakening workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a labor middle age." They argue Greek employees currently put in more time than the majority of EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union said flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the disruption of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Previous Labor Reforms and Financial Context

In 2024, Greece introduced a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

Recent legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to 40.

European Work Statistics and Greek Economic Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, the nation's official minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was eight point one percent in the summer compared with an European mean of 5.9%, figures from Eurostat show.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but wages and living standards continue to be among the poorest in the European Union.