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Greece's legislature has given the green light a hotly debated labor reform that permits extended-length work shifts, despite strong resistance and nationwide protests.

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

Main Elements of the New Labor Law

According to the newly enacted legislation, yearly extra hours is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the standard forty-hour workweek remains in place.

Officials insists that the longer shift is optional, solely affects the private sector, and can exclusively be used for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Parliamentary Support and Resistance

Thursday's vote was backed by lawmakers from the governing conservative political group, with the moderate party – now the main resistance – rejecting the bill, while the left-wing party did not vote.

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests demanding the law's repeal recently that halted transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Justification and Worker Protections

A senior official supported the legislation, stating the reforms bring in line national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged opposition leaders of misleading the public.

The laws will give employees the choice to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be dismissed for declining extra hours.

This complies with EU labor rules, which cap the average week to forty-eight hours counting extra hours but allow adjustments over 12 months, as stated by the administration.

Critical Viewpoints and Labor Responses

However, critics have charged the government of eroding employee protections and "pushing the country back to a medieval work era." They say local employees already work longer hours than the majority of EU citizens while receiving lower pay and still "face financial difficulties."

The public-sector union stated flexible working hours in reality mean "the end of the eight-hour day, the destruction of family and social life and the legalisation of over-exploitation."

Recent Labor Changes and Economic Context

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

New legislation, which came into effect at the start of July, allow workers to labor up to 48 hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Work Data and National Financial Indicators

• Across the EU in 2024, the longest average hours were observed in Greece (39.8 hours), then Bulgaria, Poland and Romania (38.8).
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands (32.1), according to Eurostat.
• As of this year, the nation's national minimum wage stood at nine hundred sixty-eight euros a month, placing it in the bottom group 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 show.
• Greece is recovering since its decade-long financial troubles, which concluded in 2018, but salaries and living standards continue to be among the lowest in the European Union.