The new year brings a reformed and stricter disciplinary regime to the public sector. As of today, January 1, 2026, the new disciplinary law comes into force, radically changing the framework of responsibilities and sanctions for public servants. Law 5225/25 redraws the boundaries of official responsibility, providing for stricter penalties and an expansion of disciplinary offenses and cases leading to dismissal.

New offenses are added to the list of disciplinary violations, while others provided for by special laws are codified. Indicatively, disciplinary offenses now include failure to declare a conflict of interest, any form of violence and harassment in the workplace, failure or delay in issuing a declaratory act of dismissal from service, and participation in companies or undertaking work incompatible with the status of a public servant.

Refusal by an employee to take part in the evaluation process—either as an evaluator or as an evaluatee—is now considered a distinct disciplinary offense. In such a case, it is punished with a fine equal to two months’ salary, while refusal to participate in evaluation for two consecutive evaluation periods is punished by permanent removal from duty.

The provisions of the new disciplinary framework, introduced by Interior Minister Thodoris Livanios and Deputy Minister Vivi Charalambogianni, apply to public sector employees, employees of first- and second-level local authorities, as well as legal entities governed by public law.

For municipal employees, specific disciplinary offenses include refusal to wear personal protective equipment (gloves, helmets, masks, etc.) provided by the service during working hours and failure to attend preventive medical examinations. A serious breach of duty for the competent municipal administrative body is the failure to provide personal protective equipment to eligible employees.

For the uniformed personnel of the municipal police, a specific disciplinary offense is refusal to wear the uniform and insignia provided by the service during working hours.

Three new penalties are added to the already existing disciplinary sanctions: deprivation of the right to receive a salary grade increase for one to five years, removal of up to four salary grades, and prohibition from exercising supervisory duties on an acting or special basis for one to five years.

Thus, the disciplinary penalties imposed on employees (in ascending order of severity) are as follows:

a) written reprimand,
b) fine of up to twelve months’ salary,
c) deprivation of the right to receive a salary grade increase for one to five years,
d) removal of up to four salary grades,
e) deprivation of the right to promotion for one to five years,
f) deprivation of the right to participate in a selection process for a supervisory position for one to five years,
g) removal from supervisory duties for the term or its remainder and prohibition from exercising supervisory duties for one to five years,
h) demotion by up to two grades,
i) temporary suspension from three to twelve months with full loss of salary, and
j) permanent dismissal.

Under the same law, in some cases the maximum penalty that disciplinary superiors may impose is increased. For example, the maximum salary fine that a minister may impose as a disciplinary authority is increased from three to five months’ salary.

For the first time, so-called “disciplinary settlement” is introduced into public sector disciplinary law, which the employee under review may request in order to receive, under certain conditions, a more lenient penalty. This option may be used in cases of disciplinary offenses that do not entail permanent dismissal and where no financial damage has been caused or where any damage caused has been fully remedied by the employee.

Cases pending until the end of 2025 will be referred to the existing collective disciplinary bodies; however, from the new year onward, responsibility will be assumed by the Public Sector Human Resources Disciplinary Council. This new disciplinary body will consist of 60 judges who are members of the Legal Council of the State and will operate in three-member and five-member panels, depending on the seriousness of the disciplinary case under examination. A special five-member panel will examine exceptionally serious cases that provoke public concern.

With the new system, disciplinary justice in the public sector acquires a standardized form, safeguards are introduced to ensure transparency and objectivity in the procedure, and provisions are included to speed up the issuance of decisions, which under the previous system could be delayed for up to five years.

According to statistical data kept by the National Transparency Authority, 3,360 sworn administrative investigations are pending, of which 77 date back to 2021, while the number of employees with pending disciplinary cases exceeds 5,900. The first-instance and second-instance disciplinary councils will be abolished in early 2027 and are required to complete, by the end of 2026 at the latest, the examination of cases pending before them up to December 31, 2025.