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Government Building

Greece's legislature has ratified a contentious work legislation that authorizes extended-length work shifts, despite fierce resistance and countrywide strike actions.

The administration asserted the measure will revamp Greek work laws, but opposition figures from the left-wing faction described it as a "legislative monstrosity."

Main Provisions of the New Work Legislation

Under the freshly approved law, annual overtime is limited at one hundred and fifty hours, while the regular forty-hour workweek remains in place.

The government insists that the longer workday is optional, solely affects the business sector, and can only be applied for up to thirty-seven days annually.

Political Backing and Opposition

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

Worker organizations have organized multiple protests calling for the law's repeal this month that brought transportation and services to a standstill.

Government Defense and Worker Safeguards

A senior official supported the bill, stating the reforms align Greek legislation with modern employment conditions, and accused opposition leaders of misinforming the citizens.

The laws will give workers the choice to take on extra work with the current company for 40% higher pay, while ensuring they cannot be fired for declining overtime.

This complies with European Union labor rules, which limit the average week to 48 hours including overtime but allow adjustments over a year, according to the administration.

Critical Perspectives and Union Responses

However, opposition parties have accused the administration of eroding employee protections and "driving the country back to a medieval work era." They argue local employees currently work longer hours than most Europeans while earning less and still "struggle to make ends meet."

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

Previous Workplace Reforms and Economic Background

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

New legislation, which came into effect at the beginning of the summer, allow employees to labor up to forty-eight hours in a week as instead of forty.

European Work Data and Greek Financial Metrics

• Throughout the European Union in the previous year, the longest average hours were recorded in Greece (39.8 hours), followed by Bulgaria, Poland (38.9) and Romania.
• The shortest work hours in the union is in the Netherlands, as per EU statistics.
• Starting this year, Greece's national base pay was €968 a month, ranking it in the lower tier among European nations.
• Unemployment, which had reached a high at twenty-eight percent during the economic downturn, was 8.1% in August compared with an EU average of five point nine percent, figures from Eurostat show.
• Greece is improving since its decade-long debt crisis, which ended in 2018, but salaries and quality of life remain among the poorest in the European Union.