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Government Building

The Greek parliament has approved a disputed work legislation that permits extended-length work shifts, despite fierce resistance and nationwide protests.

The administration stated the measure will modernize Greek work laws, but critics from the progressive party described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Elements of the Recently Passed Labor Law

Under the freshly approved legislation, yearly overtime is capped at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour workweek continues as before.

The government insists that the longer shift is optional, solely applies to the business sector, and can only be applied for up to 37 days each year.

Political Support and Resistance

Thursday's ballot was backed by MPs from the ruling conservative political group, with the centre-left party – currently the primary resistance – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

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

Official Defense and Employee Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the legislation, saying the reforms align Greek legislation with modern labor-market realities, and accused critics of misinforming the citizens.

These regulations will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they will not be dismissed for refusing overtime.

This complies with European Union working-time regulations, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours including extra hours but permit flexibility over a year, according to the administration.

Opposition Perspectives and Labor Reactions

But, critics have charged the government of weakening workers' rights and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They argue local workers currently put in more time than the majority of Europeans while earning less and still "face financial difficulties."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in reality mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Reforms and Financial Context

Last year, the country enacted a six-day work schedule for specific industries in a attempt to stimulate the economy.

New legislation, which started at the start of July, permit employees to work up to forty-eight hours in a week as opposed to forty.

European Labor Data and National Economic Indicators

• Across the European Union in the previous year, the highest working weeks were observed in the Hellenic Republic, then Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest working week in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• As of this year, the nation's national base pay stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, ranking it in the bottom group among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in the summer compared with an European mean of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat indicate.
• The country is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the poorest in the European Union.