At the opposite pole, there are Finland and France, with 37.3 hours a week, according to a report by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound).
Romanians are followed by employees in Luxembourg and Great Britain (40.9 hours/week), Portugal (40.4 hours), Germany (40.3 hours) and Poland (40.2 hours).
In ten of the 13 countries which entered EU starting with 2004, the work week was above the EU average of 39.5 hours. Thus, only Hungary (39.1 hours), Malta (39.2 hours) and Slovakia (39.3 hours) had a shorter work week.
Last year, the work week was higher than the average collectively agreed work week in 20 of the EU countries. The average collectively agreed work week is 40 hours in Romania, the highest in the EU.
Eurofound is a body of the Union, created in 1975 with the aim of assisting in the planning and introduction of better living and working conditions in Europe.