The labor market is undergoing fundamental changes from February 16th. On this date, provisions for 13-hour workdays, four-day employment, fast track hiring, flexible forms of employment, and vacation allocation come into effect. At the same time, new IT systems “Ergani II” and “Ariadni” will be implemented, monitoring in real-time whether contributions align with employment changes for each worker.
More specifically, the changes coming to labor relations from Monday, February 16th include:
1. Maximum employment limit: Up to 13 hours with two or more employers. This will also apply to one employer, with conditions: first, there must be an agreement between employee and employer, and second, the mandatory 11-hour daily rest period must be maintained. In the 13-hour system, the employee will receive a 20% increase for the 9th hour and a 40% increase for each overtime hour from the 10th to 13th. The total weekly schedule will not exceed 48 hours including overwork and overtime. The 13-hour workday with one employer means the employee will have the 8-hour base plus a 20% increase for the 9th hour and 40% for the 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th hours. Flexible hours can be requested by the employee to supplement their income, or requested by the employer, but in this case employee agreement is required.
2. Four-day employment: Can be agreed for the entire year and not just for periods up to 6 months, as currently applies. With 4-day work, employees can request and agree with their employer to distribute their weekly work time into four 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday, and take Friday off. Four-day work can also be proposed by the employer during periods of low demand, without salary reduction.
3. Simplified hiring: By eliminating four forms and the obligation for employers to keep printed documents that are maintained electronically and to attach unnecessary files to “Ergani II”.
4. Fast track hiring procedures: Duration up to 2 days. Such contracts are in demand in hospitality and tourism, as well as various social events for emergency staff, mainly working weekends.
5. Vacation allocation: Will be allowed to be given in split periods, with agreement between employee and employer. The employee can request to take the four-week vacation in splits, provided the employer agrees.
6. Elimination of contributions on additional increases paid for overtime work, either as voluntary provision or based on collective agreement. If a business gives its staff a 100% hourly wage increase for Sunday work due to contract or voluntary provision, instead of the 75% provided by law, the exemption from contributions that already applies to 75% of the increase will extend to the additional 25%.
7. Harmful change is salary reduction: For example, for an employee who had a €1,500 salary before the digital card and after implementing the digital card receives €200 from overtime, the employer will not have the right to lower the salary to €1,300 to show €1,500 including overtime.
In the 13-hour system, the employee will receive a 20% increase for the 9th hour and 40% for each hour of overtime work from the 10th to 13th hour.
Changes coming to the labor market – Higher salaries with overtime and increases in flexible schedules
Higher wages come from increases in flexible schedules, as well as non-deduction of contributions on additional overtime amounts.
Specifically, an employee with a 40% increase in overtime pay with rotating work earning €10 per hour and working three overtime hours will receive €42 extra for those three hours, beyond payment for the 8-hour workday. In practice, employees working two or three days per week will directly receive the increase that applies to overtime work (+40%), without the intermediate 20% increase that applies to overwork from the 8th to 9th hour of employment.
Also, as mentioned earlier, if a business gives its staff a 100% hourly wage increase for Sunday work due to contract or voluntary provision, instead of the 75% provided by law, the exemption from contributions that already applies to 75% of the increase will extend to the additional 25%, which employees currently receive with deductions.
The “all-in-one” philosophy
The philosophy of the new information system is summarized in the “all-in-one” logic: unified recording, unified flow of declarations, and unified reference point for businesses, employees, and control mechanisms.
All forms of employment relationships – full-time, part-time, rotating, temporary work, parallel employment – are recorded in real-time with unified coding.
“Ergani II” merges data from forms E5 Declaration of voluntary departure of employee, E6 Termination of indefinite employment contract (with or without notice), E7 Certificate – Employer declaration for fixed-term or project contracts. Additionally, “Ergani II” serves as the foundation for employment data interoperability with social security data, within the framework of the “Ariadni” project. This provides for gradual connection with EFKA’s new information system, so employment and insurance data are exchanged automatically.
Furthermore, the new system will be able to feed data related to employee services tax, thus unifying all three pillars of work (employment – insurance – taxation).
