🔗 Share this article

Government Building

The Greek legislature has ratified a hotly debated work legislation that authorizes extended-length working days, in the face of strong opposition and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials claimed the law will update the country's work laws, but opposition figures from the progressive party labeled it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Elements of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved legislation, annual extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek remains in place.

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

Political Backing and Resistance

The recent vote was supported by lawmakers from the ruling conservative party, with the centre-left party – now the main resistance – voting against the legislation, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests demanding the law's repeal this month that brought transportation and services to a stop.

Government Defense and Employee Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, saying the changes bring in line Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

These regulations will provide workers the option to take on extra work with the current company for increased pay, while guaranteeing they will not be fired for declining extra hours.

This follows EU working-time regulations, which limit the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, as stated by the government.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Responses

But, critics have accused the administration of eroding workers' rights and "pushing the nation back to a medieval work era." They say Greek workers currently work longer hours than most EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in practice mean "the abolition of the standard workday, the destruction of personal time and the authorization of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Financial Context

Last year, Greece enacted a six-day work schedule for certain sectors in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

Recent legislation, which started at the beginning of the summer, allow workers to labor up to 48 hours in a week as opposed to forty.

EU Work Statistics and Greek Economic Indicators

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the highest average hours were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria (39.0), Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the bloc is in the Netherlands, as per Eurostat.
• As of this year, Greece's official base pay stood at €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at 28% during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from the statistical office indicate.
• The country is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which ended in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the poorest in the EU.