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Greece's legislature has given the green light a hotly debated labor reform that permits 13-hour working days, in the face of widespread opposition and countrywide protests.

Government officials asserted the measure will update the country's labor regulations, but critics from the left-wing party described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Key Elements of the Recently Passed Work Legislation

According to the newly enacted legislation, annual overtime is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour week stays unchanged.

Officials insists that the longer workday is optional, only applies to the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was backed by lawmakers from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left faction – currently the primary opposition – voting against the bill, while the progressive group abstained.

Worker organizations have staged multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that halted public transport and services to a stop.

Government Justification and Employee Protections

A senior official supported the legislation, claiming the reforms align Greek legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused opposition leaders of misleading the citizens.

These regulations will provide workers the option to accept additional hours with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with EU labor regulations, which cap the mean workweek to 48 hours including extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, as stated by the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Reactions

But, critics have charged the government of eroding workers' rights and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They say local employees currently work longer hours than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated variable shifts in practice mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Previous Labor Reforms and Economic Context

Last year, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for specific sectors in a attempt to stimulate economic growth.

Recent legislation, which started at the beginning of the summer, permit employees to labor up to 48 hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

EU Labor Data and National Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per EU statistics.
• As of January 2025, Greece's official base pay stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Joblessness, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer versus an European mean of five point nine percent, data from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and quality of life remain among the poorest in the EU.