The Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s plans for the gradual extension of the Digital Work Card to all sectors of professional activity are proceeding at a steady pace.

Following the implementation of the measure in banks, large supermarkets, insurance companies, security companies and public utilities, the Digital Work Card will be fully implemented from 1 July 2024 in retail and in industry, which have already joined the measure as of January 1, 2024. According to the planning, from the autumn of 2024, the Digital Job Card is expected to be extended to the tourism and food service sectors.

Speaking to RES-MPA, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Niki Kerameos, said that the full implementation of the Digital Labour Card in the industrial and retail sectors is an important step for everyday working life in our country and the proper implementation of labour law.

As she says, “in a business environment that is experiencing significant growth, it is important to safeguard the rights of workers, improving their daily working life and ensuring the full payment of their accrued wages, while ensuring healthy conditions of competition between companies. The Digital Labour Card combats phenomena of undeclared and under-declared work and contribution evasion, which primarily affect workers and consistent businesses and undermine the sustainability of the country’s social security system. The measure is already being successfully applied to employees of banks, large supermarkets, insurance companies, security companies and public utilities and is to be gradually extended to all businesses in the country.”

These enterprises are now required to have and activate a Digital Work Card system for all their employees, with a dependent employment relationship, who are physically present at the enterprise’s place of work.

The Digital Work Card ensures the monitoring of actual working time, combating abusive policies of undeclared overtime and illegal changes and overruns of working time.

Thus, if during the inspection it is found that an employee has started his/her employment on the premises of his/her employer without the Digital Work Card being marked, administrative fines and penalties are imposed by the Labour Inspectors.

The same will happen if it is found that the employee has “illegitimate” markings on his/her Card, supposedly stating that he/she has left the company, while, in fact, he/she is still working, carrying out undeclared overtime work.

According to the Ministry of Labour, its universal application has multiple benefits for the labour market, as it safeguards the rights of workers, enhances healthy competition and ensures the sustainability of the social security system.

At the same time, the use of the Digital Work Card, apart from transparency in working time, which leads to correct and legal wages, simplifies at the same time the announcement procedures in the Information System “ERGANI II”.

Thus, any employer who is subject to the mandatory application of the Digital Working Card will, from 1/7/2024, be able to choose the accounting system for reporting changes in working hours, overtime and the organisation of working time.

In particular, Article 22 of Law No. 5053/2023, the possibility was introduced for companies that have joined the Digital Labour Card Mechanism, if they wish, not to register in advance the changes or modification of working hours or the organization of working time or overtime, before they are implemented, thus removing a significant bureaucratic burden.

Thus they are obliged:
a) Declare by the last day of the current calendar month in the “digital declaration of choice of a pre-announcement or accounting system for recording changes in working hours, organisation of working time and overtime” that, for the following month, they choose to record changes in working hours or organisation of working time and overtime, accounting for the same month.

b) To register the relevant changes by the end of the next calendar month following the month in which they were made.

Enterprises that have compulsorily joined the Digital Job Card application only may choose a different system (either pre-announcement or reporting) each month. However, the combined application of the two systems within the same month is not allowed.

In the case of an accounting declaration, an initial pre-announcement planning of the organisation of employees’ working time by the enterprises is required (e.g. at the level of a week or a month).

It is understandable that businesses/employers who have opted for the accounting system have the option, if they wish, to revert to the pre-announcement system, but they will still have to enter the “ERGANI II” Information System and declare this before the start of the calendar month in which they wish to revert to the pre-announcement procedure.

In any case, this reporting option is not given to all other companies that have not yet joined the mandatory implementation of the Digital Labour Card and, therefore, will continue to report compulsorily pre-announced changes in working time in terms of hours and organisation, as well as overtime.

Users of the accounting system should pay attention, as in the event of a mismatch between the actual employment and the relevant marking on the Card, the employer will be subject to the legally prescribed fine per employee on whose Digital Card the above-mentioned matching is not possible.

Cases of justified non-marking of the Digital Work Card
As noted in the circular of the Ministry of Labour dated 21/6/2024, although the marking of the Digital Work Card is an obligation of all employees who are physically present at the place of work of the company, there are cases where the non-marking is considered justified and, in case of control by the Labour Inspectors, does not entail sanctions.

These cases are specified as follows:

I. Teleworkers
At this stage, the Digital Work Card Mechanism only applies to employees with a physical presence at the place where the company has its premises and, therefore, employees working with teleworking are not yet obliged to mark the Digital Card during the days they work with this system of work time organization.

Therefore, if the company has submitted a declaration of digital work time organization, in which, during a specific period of time or on specific working days within the week, employees appear to telework, the failure to mark their Card during the specific period of time or on specific working days within the week is considered justified and does not entail any penalty.

However, there is also the situation where some employees wish to work with physical presence for a certain period of a day and telecommute for the remainder of the same day.

In the Information System “ERGANI II” the possibility of multiple designation within the same day is given for the case where someone does not start or complete his/her work at the same place of work provision.

In this case, if, for example, an employee starts working by telework and completes his/her work by physical presence at the place of work of the enterprise or vice versa, he/she must mark the Digital Card upon entering and leaving the place of work by physical presence.

II. Special categories of employees with a non-fixed place of work, which is constantly changing during the day
There are specific categories of employees who, by the nature of their job (e.g., medical visitors, sales inspectors, traveling salespeople, technicians, drivers, employees visiting their employer’s customers, advertising salespeople, etc.), do not have a fixed place of employment, but are required to move regularly from one place of employment to another throughout the day.

Given the objective difficulty that exists for marking the Digital Card of such employees at any location where they may be in the course of performing their duties, it is appropriate to treat them in the same manner as telecommuting employees.

Accordingly, these categories of employees will not be required to have their Digital Cards marked on days when they are working away from the firm’s fixed place of work and regularly move from one point to another within the same day.

In this case, in which there is no Card marking at the beginning and/or at the end of the employment of these employees with physical presence in the premises of the enterprise, the daily working hours declared in the “ERGANI II” P.S. will be presumed to be the working hours for the specific day and the non-marking of their Card during the specific days of employment within the week will be considered justified and will not be penalized.

If such employees are found to be employed at a location outside their fixed place of work and in order to be able to prove that the non-marking of their Digital Card at their customers’ premises is considered justified, they should bring with them a copy of their employment contract, as well as a copy of the staff roster, which will show not only their employer, but also their specialty and place of work and, thus, the possibility of non-marking of their Digital Card.

On the contrary, if the employees in these categories have a fixed place of work outside the premises of the enterprise/employer, but in a place made available to the enterprise/employer for its exclusive use through a lease, e.g., salespersons of a particular enterprise who work permanently in a shop-in-a-shop of another enterprise, technicians of an enterprise who provide their services permanently at the headquarters of another enterprise, but in a place leased and used exclusively by their enterprise/employer, then the obligation to provide their services in a fixed place of work is not required.

If such employees are found to be physically employed either at their firm/employer’s fixed place of employment or at a fixed place of employment outside the firm/employer’s premises, they must have their card marked.

Otherwise, penalties will be imposed by the Labour Inspectorate.

III. Managers
Employees who hold a supervisory, managerial or confidential position are normally enrolled in the digital organisation of working time process.

For these employees, a declaration of change of employment relationship data-working time organization is required.