The new six-day work regulation has been implemented from July 1 in certain sectors, namely in businesses that by their nature are continuous in nature and those that already operate on a 24-hour basis 5 or 6 days a week.

The possibility of six-day work was introduced by articles 25 and 26 of Law 5053/2023, with the aim of combating undeclared and under-declared work phenomena, as well as increasing the income of employees, since their daily wage for the 6th day will be increased by 40%.

If the 6th day coincides with a Sunday or public holiday, the employee is entitled to have his/her daily wage increased by 115% (40% of the 6th day’s increment plus 75% for working on Sunday/long holiday), an increment that can potentially exceed 115% in the case of working at night, for which an additional 25% increment applies.

The six-day work option applies exclusively to:

Businesses operating on a continuous basis by their nature which operate all days of the week on a 24-hour shift system and apply a five-day workweek for their employees, as well as non-continuous businesses operating 5 or 6 days a week on a 24-hour shift system and applying a five-day workweek for their employees, and businesses operating 5 or 6 days a week on a 24-hour shift system and applying a five-day workweek for their employees.

The employment in this case may not exceed 8 hours per day, while fully maintaining the limits for the protection of workers concerning the 11-hour compulsory daily rest, the compulsory 24-hour weekly rest (1 day off) and the maintenance of an average weekly working time of 48 hours, including overtime, over a reference period of four months.

Employers of enterprises or holdings which are not by their nature continuous in operation, but which may be operated on a 24-hour basis on Monday to Saturday, on a 24-hour shift system, and in which employees are employed on a five-day working week, in order, in exceptional cases in which the enterprise has an unforeseeably particularly heavy workload, to make use of the sixth day of the week, must:

– They must have initially and responsibly declared to the ERGANI II that they belong to the specific category of enterprises.

– Declare, each time they wish to use the 6th day, in advance and in any case before the employees take up duty, to the ERGANI II that the enterprise or holding has a particularly heavy workload during a particular period. The special condition of unforeseeably particularly increased workload is subject to control by the competent department of the Labour Inspectorate.

However, it should be noted that Greeks, regardless of the legalisation of the 6th working day, work the most hours compared to other workers in Europe. According to the data, in a typical week the hours worked for people aged 20-64 years old in the EU averaged 37.5 hours, based on 2022 data.

Greece recorded 41 hours worked per week, followed by Poland (40.4), Romania and Bulgaria (40.2).

Warning. The employment of employees, during the additional day, may not exceed 8 hours and overtime and overtime work is not allowed. In cases where enterprises or farms have five-day (00.00-06.00) night shifts, they are not allowed to work on the sixth day during the night shift.