As of today, January 1, 2024, the three years in the private sector are “thawing”.which had been suspended since 2012. The decision to reinstate the three years, which will not be retroactive for the period from February 14, 2012 to December 31, 2023, protects the rights of private sector workers and accelerates the wage their development, but, at the same time, takes into account the competitiveness of the Greek economy and the viability of private enterprises in Greece.

Speaking to the Athens Agency, the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Adonis Georgiades, declares that the application of the three years is not voluntary, but it is mandatory. It is a passed law of the state and is valid from January 1, 2024.

As he points out“some will see an immediate increase in their salary. According to “ERGANI”, approximately 100,000 people have established or will establish the right to a 10% increase in 2024. As a result of the three-year period, it will be extended throughout the private sector and will reach approximately one million people.

At the same time, Mr. Georgiadis notes that the decision to “unfreeze” the three years earlier was justifieddue to the faster de-escalation of unemployment below the 10% barrier.

In particular, as of today, the following are foreseen:

– The reinstatement of the statutory minimum wage increase with seniority allowance (three years) for both employees and artisans, from 01/01/2024.

– The lifting of the suspension of the provisions of Collective Labor Agreements and Arbitration Decisions, which currently provide or will provide in the future seniority increments (three years, five years and, in general, multi-year work benefits).

– The recognition, in order to calculate the seniority allowance, of the working time completed before 02/14/2012, as well as that which will be completed after 01/01/2024 (not a retrospective search of the intervening years for the period from 14/02/2012 to 31/12/2023).

– The establishment, from 01/01/2024, of the claim to pay the seniority allowance at the minimum statutory salary and the multi-year allowances of the Collective Labor Agreements.

What applies

The most basic instructions, which include a circular from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, are the following:

1. From 1/1/2024, the suspension of the validity of provisions of laws, regulatory acts, collective agreements or arbitration decisions, which provide for increases in salaries or daily wages, including those related to seniority, is lifted, with the sole condition that a specific working time has passed , such as the multi-year allowance, the working time allowance, the three-year allowance and the five-year allowance, which was imposed by Article 4 of Act No. 6/28/02/2012 of the Council of Ministers.

2. The method of proof of seniority, completed or to be completed in the above-mentioned intervals, depends on the content of the seniority provisions of the Collective Labor Regulation (of Law 1876/1990, as applicable), in which, due to the nature of the work and the other conditions defined by law, the employee is subject to and which may specifically regulate the issues of recognition and counting of previous work experience. If it is not regulated otherwise by such a text of Collective Labor Regulation, the previous service is recognized as the one completed with the same or another employer, in the same specialty.

3. For those employees who are paid the minimum statutory salary or daily wage, the time of a dependent contract or employment relationship, spent with any employer and in any specialty, before 14/02/2012 and after 1 /1/2024.

The above-mentioned increase, due to seniority, is determined as follows:

a) For employees, with a dependent employment relationship, at a rate of 10% for each three years of service and up to three three years and, in total, at a rate of 30% for a service of nine years or more.

b) For artisans, with a dependent employment relationship, at a rate of 5% for each three years of service and up to six three years and, in total, 30% for service of 18 years or more.

4. The working time completed until 14/02/2012 (or will be completed from 1/1/2024 onwards) with a part-time status, is taken into account as prior service time for the purposes of article 33 of Law 5053 /2023 in the same way that is taken into account for the comparable employee, i.e. the corresponding full-time employee of par. 2/b’ of article 2 of Law 3846/2010 (A’ 66), as applicable. For the calculation of this length of service, part-time work, which corresponds to the normal (legal or contractual) daily time of the aforementioned comparable employee, corresponds to one day of length of service.

5. If the paid regular wages are higher than the legal wages, the increases, the increments and the amounts in general resulting from the application of the above, are set off with the difference that arises between the paid and legal wages, with the payment of which they are paid in full or partially.

6. For the period from 02/14/2012 to 12/31/2023, no claim is made or due increases in salaries or wages, including those related to seniority, with the sole condition that a specific working time has passed, as stated above, nor is it allowed to calculate previous service that has been completed from 14/02/2012 to 31/12/2023.