Greece’s New Overtime Limits Amongst Latest Employment law Changes

The new year brought a number of changes to Greek employment laws, including the introduction of a new national general collective bargaining agreement and changes to legislation concerning overtime compensation at industrial enterprises and the classification of the fines for employment law infringements.

On December 30, 2019, the new national general collective bargaining agreement for 2020, concluded. The agreement sets the minimum wage for 2020 at 650,00 € per month for office employees and 29,04 € per day for manual workers. All the remaining provisions contained in the previous national general collective bargaining agreements remain in effect.

In relation to overtime compensation, a ministerial decision relating to workers at industries and industrial enterprises limits the hours of overtime to 48 hours every 6 months (an increase from 30 hours). This increase is designed to close the gap with the applicable respective maximum limit at commercial enterprises, which is 60 hours every 6 months.

Another decision of the Labor Ministry establishes a guidance for setting fines for potential employment law violations. The guidance is based on categorizing breaches based on whether they concern an individual employee or the personnel as a whole; they relate to compliance with safety and hygiene standards; the number of employees and the size of the employer; the severity of the violations; the potential repeated imposition of sanctions for similar infringements; and the employer’s fault-based liability.

Based on the criteria, fines will be determined and imposed up to a maximum amount of 8.000,00 € on an ad hoc basis. (Detailed tables containing the categories of the infringements and the amounts of the respective fines are attached to the ministerial decision).

Written by Georgios C. Chatzigiannakis of NOMOS and Roger James of Ogletree Deakins

© 2020 NOMOS and Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.