As the summer season has begun and thousands of workers are waiting for the rest period and the gift of summer, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the Workers & Unemployed Information Center (K.E.P.E.) provide clarifications on the annual leisure leave for workers. A.) of the Confederation (www.kepea.gr).

In particular, the following apply:

A. Regulation of the annual recreation leave by rules of public order

1. The provisions of the institutional framework concerning the annual leisure leave of employees are of public order, with the consequence that any express or implied agreement to the contrary is not allowed and is invalid, as well as the employee’s waiver of the relevant claims.

2. The holiday allowance was further guaranteed by the National General Labor Law of 2010 (article 1) for private law employees throughout the Greek territory and is included together with the basic arrangements for annual leisure leave in the Individual Labor Law Code (articles 210- 216 PD 80/2022).

3. During the annual leave, the dismissal of the employee is prohibited.

4. Teleworkers, in accordance with current legislation, during their annual leisure leave, have the right to disconnect, i.e. they have the right to completely refrain from providing their work and, in particular, not to communicate digitally and not to answer phone calls , emails or in any form of communication.

B. Time of granting the annual leisure leave

1. The annual leisure leave of the employee is granted in consultation with the employer as to the time of its granting and, in any case, within two months of the submission of a relevant request by the employee.

2. At least half of the employees of a company must take their leave between May 1st and September 30th.

By legislative regulation (Article 61 of Law 4808/2021), it is possible to transfer the annual regular leave until the first quarter of the following calendar year (for the 2023 leisure leave, until the end of March 2024).

If the first quarter of the following year also passes, the leave claim is converted into a cash claim.

3. Employers who employ workers who protect children up to 16 years of age (natural or adopted) and children over 16 years of age with disabilities, are obliged, when planning the time of granting annual leaves of absence to their staff, to take into account the needs of these workers.

C. Duration of Annual Recreational Leave

1. The granting of annual paid leave to employees is calculated based on the calendar year.

2. The employee is entitled to a proportion of annual leave time from the start of his employment, according to his weekly working system (five days or six days), without being required to complete a specific period of previous service to his employer.

3. Specifically, during the first calendar year that the employee was hired, the employer is obliged to grant him, by March 31 of the following year at the latest, a proportion of the leave days to which he is entitled from his employment until December 31 of the specific calendar year, according to the months of his employment.

Every employee with an employment relationship of indefinite or fixed duration is entitled from the start of his work until the completion of twelve months to receive the percentage of his leave. This ratio is calculated on the basis of 20 working days of annual leave for those who work five days and 24 working days for those who work six days.

4. During the second calendar year, after the employee completes twelve months of work, he is entitled to leave for 21 days (five-day work) and 25 days (six-day work).

5. For the third and subsequent working years, the employee is entitled from January 1 of each year to his normal annual leave with pay, i.e. 22 days (five-day work) and 26 days (six-day work).

6. After completing 10 years of work with the same employer or 12 years of service with any employer, the employee is entitled to a leave of 25 working days (five-day work) and 30 working days (six-day work).

7. After completing 25 years of service with any employer, employees are entitled to one additional day of leave, i.e. 26 days (five-day work) and 31 days (six-day work).

8. Only working days are counted in the annual leave days. Therefore, Sundays, public holidays, customary holidays, sick days and special leaves provided for by other provisions are not included, if they coincide with it (e.g. marriage leave, child birth leave, maternity leave ).

D. Manner of granting the annual leisure leave

1. The basic rule is that the annual leave is granted continuously and for the total number of days to which the employee is entitled depending on his seniority.

2. In the event that more favorable conditions apply (e.g. from SSE, labor regulations, business custom or custom) regarding the employees’ annual leave and the leave allowance, these prevail.

3. The data concerning the granting of annual leave to employees must be entered by the employer a) in the leave book, which can also be in the form of computerized pages and must be available for inspection by the Labor Inspectorate and b) in the Information “ERGANI” system, where, in accordance with the law, the granting of the annual leave is announced electronically up to one hour after its start.

In form E11 (disclosure of details of annual regular leave), the details of employees who received annual leave and leave allowance during the previous calendar year and have been entered in the special leave book are entered in April of each year.

Breakdown of annual leave

1. It is permitted, exceptionally, to divide the annual leave time within the same calendar year into two periods, due to a particularly serious or urgent business need.

In any case, the first period of the leave cannot include less than six working days in a six-day working week and five working days in a five-day working week, or 12 working days in the case of legally working minors.

2. Upon written request of the employee to the employer, the division of leave time is allowed in more than two periods, one of which must include at least 12 working days in a six-day weekly work and 10 working days in a five-day or 12 working week days, as long as it concerns minors who work legally.

3. Especially, in cases of businesses that employ regular and seasonal staff and present a particular accumulation of work due to the type or scope of their work, at a specific time of the year, for the regular staff, the employer may grant the part of the leave of 10 working days on a five-day basis or 12 on a six-day basis, at any time within the calendar year.

4. It is pointed out that this application of the employee, as well as the decision of the employer, although they no longer require approval by the competent SEPE department, are nevertheless kept in the company for five years and must be available to the Labor Inspectorate.

E. Annual Vacation Pay and Time of Payment

1. The leave allowance was further enshrined in Article 2 of the National General Labor Code of 2010, which states the following:

“The employee who establishes a right to regular leisure leave, in cash or in cash, is entitled to receive the leave allowance, which is his regular earnings, calculated in the same way as the leave earnings are calculated and is subject to the same rules as them.

The leave allowance is equal to the total of the regular ordinary wages actually paid for the leave, with the limitation that it cannot exceed 15 days’ wages for those paid on a monthly salary and 13 days’ wages for those paid on a daily basis or by the unit of work or by percentages or otherwise.

The corresponding leave allowance is paid in advance when the leisure leave or part thereof is taken together with the leave allowances.

General or specific provisions of laws, decrees, ministerial decisions, collective labor agreements, arbitration decisions, labor regulations and other regulatory acts, which determine more favorable ways of calculating, paying and generally providing the leave allowance, prevail and remain in force.

Article 6 of the EGSSE 1997 on the granting of the leave allowance in case of early termination of the employment relationship is still valid, with the deletion of the words “before the employee completes twelve months of continuous employment with the same employer”, due to the subsequent modification of the conditions for obtaining leave ».

2. In the event that the employer does not grant the leave requested by the employee until the end of March of the following calendar year, he must pay the wages of the due leave time, with a 100% increase, plus the leave allowance.

The unions, the local Labor Centers and the GSEE power Federations emphasize that they are vigilant about the workers’ complaints.

GSEE is continuously and consistently at the disposal of unions and workers throughout the territory for any issue of information, support and collective action:

a) the GSEE Workers and Unemployed Information Center (KEPEA/GSEE) – www.kepea.gr and

b) the Network of Information & Counseling Services for Employees and the Unemployed of the GSEE Labor Institute (INE/GSEE)

https://www.inegsee.gr/diktio-ipiresion-pliroforisis-simvouleftikis-ergazomenon-anergon/.

At the same time, the GSEE and the Information Center for Employees & Unemployed (KEPEA) of the Confederation (www.kepea.gr) makes available to employees the possibility, through the online application, that the KEPE has created .E.A. on its website or through the App, to calculate the license they are entitled to on the following links:

For full time employment

https://www.kepea.gr/calc-epidoma-adeias.php

For shift work:

https://www.kepea.gr/calc-adeia-ek-peritropis.php