Until April 12, Holy Wednesday, employers must pay employees the Easter gift 2023.

It is clarified that for the Easter Gift, contributions for EFKA (IKA) and Wage Tax are given and under no circumstances is this allowed to be paid in kind, but only in money. In any case of non-payment, within the set deadline, the Social Labor Inspectors of S.E.P.E are obliged to intervene immediately, carrying out checks and to be fully prepared, for the exercise of the autoforo procedure and the imposition of the relevant sanctions .

How is it calculated?

The Gift is equal to half a month’s salary if one is salaried, or 15 days’ wages if one is salaried.

Work from January 1st to April 30th is the time period in which the Easter Gift that the employee will receive is calculated. If the employee’s employment lasted for this entire period, then he is entitled to receive half a month’s salary if he is paid a salary and 15 days’ wages if he is paid a daily wage. If the employment relationship of an employee with his employer did not last the entire aforementioned period, then he is entitled to receive a proportion of Gift which is calculated as follows:

For a salaried employee, an amount equal to 1/15 of half the monthly salary or one day’s salary, for salaried employees, for every 8 calendar days of the duration of the employment relationship. In the event that the employment relationship lasts less than eight days, he is entitled to a corresponding portion for the Easter Gift.
Unless the work was provided without interruption throughout the period from 1 January to 30 April, during which all days that employees are legally absent from work are also included (eg with annual leave, with maternity leave, with study leave).
Especially with regard to the absence of employees due to illness, the “three days of sickness” are included in the calculation period of the Easter Gift, i.e. the time of absence during which no sick pay is paid, while the periods paid by the insurance company sick pay are deducted.

The regular earnings

The Easter Gift is calculated based on the actually paid regular wages on the 15th day before Easter, as long as they are equal to or higher than the legal ones. In the event that the employment relationship has been terminated before the above date, the Easter Gift is calculated based on the wages paid on the day the employment relationship was terminated.

Regular wages are considered o salary or daily wage as well as any other benefit (whether in money or in kind) paid by the employer as a contractual or legal consideration for the work provided regularly every month or repeated periodically at certain intervals of the year.
Which times do not count

  • The days on which the employee was absent from work without reason or due to unpaid leave are not counted.
  • The period of absence of employees due to trade union activity (i.e. time on trade union leave) is not taken into account.

Regarding the strike, the judicial jurisprudence accepts that the days of the strike are not counted in the duration of the employment relationship because the abstention of the employee is due to his own will and therefore cannot be characterized as an excused absence. By analogy, the same applies to work stoppages, since they also constitute a strike in reality.

What applies to non-payment

If the Easter gift not paid on time, then the employees and/or the unions can and must appeal to the relevant Labor Inspectorate in order to draw up a complaint report. The complaint is forwarded to the Public Prosecutor for individual prosecution against the employer, while at the same time it is also forwarded to the relevant police department for initiation of the automatic procedure.

Employees and/or their unions have the right to submit complaint directly to the relevant police station and request the application of the automatic procedure.
It should be noted that the petition should include the details of the business and the address of the employer, if possible, given that the autoforo process takes 48 hours.
Increased this year due to the increase in the minimum wage

What changes will be made this year?

The expected change to be made this year at the Easter gift is to private sector workers who are paid the minimum wage due to the new adjustment that will be made to 780 euros gross from April 1st instead of 713 euros that has been in effect until now. It is noted that the amount of the Easter Gift expected to be calculated with the new minimum wage of 780 euros for the entire period, i.e. from January 1st to April 30th and based on whether the above are paid a daily wage or a salary.