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Government Building

The Greek parliament has given the green light a disputed work legislation that enables 13-hour working days, despite fierce opposition and countrywide strike actions.

Government officials stated the measure will modernize the country's labor regulations, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "regulatory disaster."

Main Provisions of the Recently Passed Labor Law

According to the newly enacted law, annual overtime is also at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular 40-hour week continues as before.

Officials maintains that the extended workday is voluntary, solely applies to the private sector, and can exclusively be implemented for up to 37 days each year.

Parliamentary Backing and Resistance

The recent ballot was backed by MPs from the governing centre-right political group, with the centre-left faction – now the primary resistance – voting against the legislation, while the progressive party abstained.

Labor unions have organized multiple protests demanding the bill's withdrawal recently that brought public transport and public services to a stop.

Official Defense and Worker Safeguards

The Labor Minister defended the bill, claiming the reforms bring in line national laws with current labor-market realities, and alleged critics of misinforming the public.

The laws will give workers the option to take on additional hours with the same employer for 40% higher compensation, while guaranteeing they cannot be fired for refusing overtime.

This complies with European Union labor rules, which cap the mean workweek to forty-eight hours counting overtime but permit adjustments over 12 months, according to the administration.

Opposition Viewpoints and Union Reactions

However, opposition parties have accused the government of eroding employee protections and "driving the nation back to a medieval work era." They say local workers currently put in more time than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

A major labor organization said variable shifts in practice mean "the abolition of the eight-hour day, the destruction of personal time and the legalisation of excessive labor."

Recent Labor Changes and Economic Context

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

New laws, which came into effect at the start of the summer, permit workers to labor up to forty-eight hours in a workweek as instead of forty.

European Work Statistics and Greek Financial Metrics

• Across the EU in the previous year, the highest working weeks were recorded in the Hellenic Republic, followed by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania.
• The lowest work hours in the bloc is in the Netherlands (32.1), as per Eurostat.
• Starting this year, the nation's official base pay was €968 a month, placing it in the lower tier among EU countries.
• Unemployment, which had peaked at twenty-eight percent during the financial crisis, was 8.1% in August versus an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from the statistical office indicate.
• Greece is improving since its prolonged debt crisis, which concluded in recent years, but wages and living standards remain among the lowest in the EU.