Driven by greater flexibility in working hours and simplifying procedures for express hiring, the Ministry of Labour is today bringing a new labour bill to the cabinet for approval. Later in the afternoon, the Labor Ministry leadership will hold a press conference to detail measures aimed at serving and protecting workers and meeting the needs of businesses.

The key provisions of the bill are :
1. Arrangement of working hours on a weekly to annual basis
2. Working up to 13 hours with the same employer
3. Overtime and in rotational work
4. Express recruitment even via mobile phone
5. Voluntary departure with one click
6. Mandatory safety coordinators at technical projects and construction sites
7. Right to split leave
8. “Freezing” of the EAC for working pensioners

Specifically:
1. Arrangement of working time
Introducing the possibility of working four days throughout the year (rather than just for a six-month period), giving respite especially to working parents and people with increased family responsibilities while at the same time better serving the needs of the business during peak periods . Arrangements can be made on a weekly, monthly to annual basis providing flexibility for each employee to plan their time off. Caution: any change in working hours requires mandatory consent of the employees. Under the new rules and after consultation with the employer, they will be able to increase or decrease the daily working hours while maintaining the average of 40 hours per week. The extra hours worked can be compensated by reduced working hours, time off or leave on subsequent days. For example, a 10-hour workday could be applied for two days, and in return, employees would be given reduced daily working hours for two consecutive days within the same week, while taking the fifth day off as part of the 4-day workweek.

The changes were decided as it has been found that the working time arrangements so far “did not go down well” in the market due to complex procedures leading to the cancellation of the measure.

2. Express recruitment
At the same time, the same bill will promote recruitment with fast track procedures through a mobile app so that staff can be hired especially in emergency situations such as holidays and weekends when there is an increased need for customer service in restaurants, accommodation and hotels. However because every coin has two sides , shortened procedures are expected to apply to redundancies as well.

3. Working 13 hours for the same employer
Provides for working 13 hours a day, at one employer, extending an earlier regulation that set 13 hours as the limit on working hours at two employers (a regular eight-hour + part-time job).

A precondition for the extended working hours is that the statutory requirements regarding daily rest time (11 hours and weekly working time (40 hours) and salary increment must be met.

4. Overtime in rotational work
At the same time, for the first time, the possibility of overtime work in a rotational work regime will be allowed for the first time, with the provided increments (40% on the hourly wage), enhancing both the income of employees and the functionality of businesses, especially those operating in the catering sector and having increased needs some days a week.

The Ministry of Labor’s goal is to provide flexibility and modernization of working hours and overtime to accommodate businesses that are suffering from a shortage of workers but also to protect workers.

It should be noted that currently, in addition to the 8-hour workday, one hour of overtime is allowed (with a legal +20% surcharge) and up to 3 hours of overtime (with approval and a +40% surcharge). The basic condition is that it will not exceed 150 hours per year (unless special permission is granted by the SEPE). With the proposed regulation, the allowed 12-hour workday will become 13 hours, without changing the other conditions.

5. What changes to summer leave
More autonomy in the allocation of annual summer leave is provided by a provision to be included in the labour bill that is expected to be approved by the cabinet at the end of the month

Specifically, the provision now gives employees the freedom to allocate their annual leave as they wish, after consultation with their employer, thus enhancing their self-determination in rest time.

Currently, the splitting of vacation time (split leave) is only allowed by way of exception into two periods, one of which must include at least 12 working days on a six-day workweek and 10 working days on a five-day workweek upon the employee’s written request to the employer. However, in practice in most private sector enterprises, leave is granted for three weeks in August when the enterprise is closed or under-utilised. In contrast , a number of businesses (e.g. bottled water, soft drinks) prefer to give employees the long holiday in winter instead of during the peak period.

With the new provision, the “bottlenecks” are removed as the employee can “break” his leave as he sees fit, but in consultation with the employer, which means that this freedom can still be restricted if the employer invokes workload.

6. Freezing the solidarity contribution for working pensioners
The Labor Bill will include an insurance provision that will “freeze” the Solidarity ContributionPensioners’ Solidarity Contribution for working pensioners who receive or are about to receive an increase in their pension due to the addition of contributions during their working years.

The provision would “cure the distortion, an addition to the pension, to result in a reduction in the final amount the beneficiary will receive either because the pensioner enters the 1st tier of the Solidarity Contribution or because he or she changes tiers.

This issue concerns, potentially, more than 230,000 pensioners, who have declared on the special platform that has been set up that they continue to work. In practice, it concerns fewer, as about 100,000 pensioners are low-income farmers who are exempt from the imposition of contributions and therefore do not qualify for a supplement . In addition, even fewer still receive a pension of more than 1400 euros and are subject to the withholding of the NIC.

So for example if the pensioner’s income after the supplement exceeds 1434 euros (based on the 2025 scale) the scale will remain the same. Note that the Solidarity Levy is imposed on a sliding scale, ranging from 3% to 14% depending on the monthly income from main pensions