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Greece's parliament has approved a disputed work legislation that authorizes extended-length work shifts, despite strong resistance and countrywide protests.

Government officials stated the measure will revamp Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction labeled it as a "harmful law."

Key Provisions of the New Labor Law

According to the newly enacted legislation, yearly extra hours is capped at 150 hours, while the standard forty-hour week stays unchanged.

The government emphasizes that the extended shift is voluntary, solely affects the business sector, and can exclusively be used for up to 37 days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling centre-right party, with the centre-left party – currently the main resistance – voting against the bill, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Labor unions have staged multiple protests calling for the bill's withdrawal recently that halted public transport and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the reforms align Greek legislation with current labor-market conditions, and accused critics of misleading the citizens.

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

The measure complies with EU labor rules, which limit the mean week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but permit adjustments over a year, according to the government.

Opposition Perspectives and Union Responses

But, critics have charged the administration 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 EU citizens while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Recent Workplace Changes and Economic Background

Last year, the country enacted a six-day working week for certain sectors in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

Recent laws, which started at the beginning of the summer, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Work Data and Greek Economic Metrics

• Across the European Union in 2024, the longest working weeks were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The lowest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• As of January 2025, Greece's national base pay was nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in the summer versus an European mean of 5.9%, data from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and quality of life continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.