Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security Kostas Karagounis spoke to ERT about the new minimum wage, pending pensions, and the Ariadni system

“The Ariadne system, which will be completed at the end of 2025, is underway. He will make the coupling, so there will be a check so that what is declared in ERGANI is also valid in EFKA”, said the deputy minister.

Minimum Wage Bill

The minimum wage will be set with a new mathematical model from 2028, which according to the government will only bring increases and there will be no need to consult with the agencies. Mr. Karagounis comments:

“It is the French model and it has been working effectively for 70 years.

It is adopted by all the countries of Europe and obviously we are also adopting it, because it takes, it is connected to the real economic figures, namely inflation and productivity. In other words, it will be based on objective data which will come from ELSTAT.

Transparency and above all trust in the system is enhanced, the employee will know what the money is that he will get. For his family budget and planning, it is very important.

And of course an innovation also is that it will drag the public sector along, because while the wages of the private sector are rising, they did not keep up with the public sector, i.e. they were lower. The 950 euros will be for everyone.

We spread a safety net, we set the threshold at 950 euros in 2027, which is the entry salary, this entails three years, benefits, the salary can be increased by 30% from the three years.

And from there on we have the possibility to conduct free negotiations and this we will invite the parties, the social partners with specific criteria, with specific incentives to be able to proceed with the free negotiations, but with a threshold that says 950 euros. What do the opposition parties say? Now free negotiations, without the threshold of 950 euros”.

Ariadne system

“The Ariadne system, which will be completed at the end of 2025, is in progress. It will do the pairing, so there will be a check so that what is declared in ERGANI is also valid in EFKA.

Because unfortunately many may have been declared as 4 hour employment and paid less contributions.

We estimate that the state lost more than 500 million euros every year just from this work indicated in relation to the insurance contributions.

So the digitization of the insurance system and the workplace is very, very important, because first of all it protects the employee.

It is important that we vote for these procedures, so that money is not lost to the state, but above all, the worker is protected. By the end of 2025, this will also be completed,” said Mr. Karagounis.

Employee safety
Regarding safety at work, he noted: “We will bring a bill. We are already in an informal consultation first of all with the social partners and then with the parties that we are making a tightening of the framework both for the degree of danger and for the accidents, which must.

Pensions

“Under 18,000 pending pensions in the main pensions, while until 2019 they were 250,000.

And in supplementary pensions we are below 32,000 now, a very big effort is being made in these.

Mainly there are pending cases in the files, i.e. the pensions that were issued by express and then the papers had to come. That is where the big problem is to complete some pending matters.