Its design is progressing at an unabated pace Ministry of Labor and Social Security for the gradual expansion of the Digital Work Card in all areas of professional activity.

After the implementation of the measure in banks, large supermarkets, insurance companies, security companies and DEKO, the Digital Work Card is placed, from 1 July 2024in full effect at retail and in industrywhich have already been included in the measure from 1 January 2024. Based on the planning, from the autumn of 2024 the Digital Work Card is expected to be extended to the tourism and catering sectors.

Speaking to APE-MBE, the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Niki Kerameos, states that the full implementation of the Digital Labor Card in the industry and retail sectors constitutes an important step for everyday working life in our country and the correct application of labor law .

As he states, “in a business environment, which is experiencing significant growth, it is important to protect the rights of employees, improving their daily working life and ensuring the full payment of their accruals, while ensuring healthy conditions of competition between businesses. With the Digital Work Card, phenomena of undeclared and implied work and tax evasion are combated, which primarily affect employees and consistent businesses and undermine the viability of the country’s insurance system. The measure is already successfully applied to employees of banks, large supermarkets, insurance companies, security companies and DEKO and is going to be gradually extended to all businesses in the country”.

What applies

Now, the companies in question are obliged to have and activate a Digital Work Card system for all their employees, with a dependent work relationship, who are employed with a physical presence in the company’s workplace, including the employees employed in the above companies, through borrowing.

With the Digital Work Card, monitoring of real working time is ensured, combating the abusive policies of undeclared overtime and illegal changes and excesses of working time.

Thus, if during the control it is found that the employee has started his employment in the building facilities of his employer, without being marked with the Digital Work Card, administrative fines and sanctions are imposed by the Labor Inspectors.

The same will happen, if it is found that the employee has a “false” marking of his Card, with which he allegedly declares his departure from the company, while, in fact, he is still working, carrying out undeclared overtime work.

According to the Ministry of Labour, its universal application has multiple benefits for the labor market, as it ensures workers’ rights, strengthens healthy competition and ensures the sustainability of the insurance system.

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

Thus, for any employer who is subject to the mandatory application of the Digital Work Card, he will, from 1/7/2024, have the possibility to choose the accounting system for announcing changes in hours, overtime and the organization of working time.

Specifically, with article 22 of Law 5053/2023, the possibility was introduced for businesses that have joined the Digital Work Card Mechanism, if they so wish, not to register in advance the changes or modification of the working hours or the organization of working time or overtime work, before the start of their implementation, thus removing a significant bureaucratic burden.

Therefore, if companies make use of this option, they are obliged to:

a) To state by the last day of the current calendar month in the “digital declaration of choice of pre-announcement or reporting system for registering changes in hours, organization of working time and overtime” that, for the following month, they choose to register changes in working hours or organization of working time and overtime, calculated within the same month.

b) To register the relevant changes until the end of the next calendar month from the month of their implementation.

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

In the case of an accounting statement, an initial pre-announcement planning of the organization of the employees’ working time by the companies is required (e.g. on a weekly or monthly basis).

It is understandable that companies/employers who have chosen the reporting system have the possibility, if they wish, to return to the pre-announcement system, but they will still have to enter the “ERGANI II” Information System and declare it, before the start of the calendar month in which they want to return to the pre-announcement process.

In any case, this accounting possibility is not given for all other businesses that have not yet joined the mandatory application of the Digital Work Card and, therefore, will continue to obligatorily declare changes in working time in terms of schedules and organization, as well as overtime.

Users of the accounting system must be careful, since, in the event of a discrepancy between the actual employment and the relevant markings on the Card, the legally prescribed fine is imposed on the employer for each employee whose Digital Card cannot be matched as above.

Cases of justified non-marking of the Digital Work Card

As pointed out in the circular of the Ministry of Labor dated 21/6/2024, although the marking of the Digital Labor Card is an obligation of all employees who are employed with a physical presence in the company’s workplace, there are cases where the non-marking is considered justified and, in in case of control by the Labor Inspectors, it does not result in sanctions.

These cases are specified as follows:

I. Teleworkers

At the present stage, the Digital Work Card Mechanism applies only to employees with a physical presence in the area where the company has its building facilities and, therefore, teleworking employees do not yet have an obligation to mark the Digital Card during the days they work with the specific system of organizing working time.

Therefore, if the company has submitted a declaration of digital organization of working time, in which, during a specific time period or on specific working days within the week, the employees appear to work remotely, the non-marking of their Card, during the specific time period or during on the specified working days within the week, is considered justified and does not entail penalties.

However, there is also the case where some employees wish to work in physical presence for a certain period of a day and telework during the rest of the same day.

In the “ERGANI II” Information System, it is possible to make multiple designations within the same day for the case where someone does not start or finish his work at the same place of employment.

In this case, if e.g. an employee starts working remotely and completes his work in physical presence at the company’s place of work or vice versa, he must mark the Digital Card when entering and leaving the place of work in physical presence.

II. Special categories of workers with a non-fixed place of employment, which changes continuously during the day

There are certain categories of workers who, based on the nature of their work (e.g. medical visitors, sales inspectors, traveling salesmen, technicians, drivers, workers who visit their employer’s customers, advertisers, etc.), do not have a fixed place employment, but are forced to move regularly from one place of employment to another during the day.

Given the objective difficulty that exists in marking the Digital Card of said employees at every point where they may be during the performance of their duties, it is appropriate to treat them in the same way as telecommuting employees.

Therefore, the specific categories of employees will not have an obligation to mark the Digital Card during the days they work outside the company’s fixed place of employment and move regularly and within the same day from one point to another.

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 a physical presence in the building facilities of the company, the working hours for the specific day will be presumed to be the one declared in the P.S. “TOOL II” daily working hours and not marking their Card during the specified working days within the week will be considered justified and will not incur penalties.

If the employees in question find themselves employed at a point outside their fixed place of work and in order to be able to demonstrate that the non-marking of the Digital Card at their customers’ premises is considered justified, they should bring with them a copy of their employment contract, as and a copy of the staff list, from which not only their employer can be found, but also their specialty and place of employment and, thus, the possibility of not marking their Digital Card can be deduced.

On the contrary, if the employees of the said categories have a fixed place of work outside the building facilities of the company/employer, but in a space allocated to the company/employer for its exclusive use, through a lease, e.g. salespeople of a specific company who work permanently in a shop-in-a-shop of another company, technicians of a company who provide their services permanently at the headquarters of another company, but in a space that has been leased and is used exclusively by their company/employer, then the obligation of marking the Digital Card for these categories of employees is not lifted and they are obliged to mark the Card in the place where they consistently provide their services.

If the said employees are found to be employed in physical presence either at the fixed place of employment of their company/employer or at a fixed place of employment outside the premises of the company/employer, they must have their Card marked.

Otherwise, sanctions will be imposed by the Labor Inspectorate.

III. Managers

Employees who hold a supervisory or managerial or confidential position are normally registered in the process of digital organization of working time.

For these employees, it is required to submit a declaration of change of employment relationship data-organization of working time, as well as to fill in: Digital organization of working time: (YES)-Work Card: (YES), but a digital schedule and start-end declaration are not required Digital Card.