Greece's 13-hour workday law ‘barbaric and inhumane'

Greece's parliament yesterday was set to approve a reform allowing workers to work 13-hour days under exceptional circumstances, drawing fire from unions and opposition parties.

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The new law is expected to be passed by parliament, where the ruling conservatives have 156 MPs in the 300-seat chamber.

Unions have staged two strikes against the reform this month, the latest of them on Tuesday.

The government insists that the 13-hour workday is optional, only affects the private sector and can only be applied up to 37 days a year.