Sanctions for the non-compliance with Law 4808/2021 provisions on violence and harassment – digital employment card – parental leaves

The newly introduced sanctions for the non-compliance with L. 4808/2021 provisions on ·violence and harassment ·digital employment card ·parental leaves

The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs recently issued the ministerial decision No 80016/2022 (published in the Government’s Gazette No 4629/Β/01.09.2022), which categorizes the violations and the fines that may be imposed by the Labor Inspectorate Body in cases of violation of provisions of employment law 4808/2021 which introduced major reforms to the employment legislation with an aim to ensure (a) the elimination of violence and harassment in the workplace, (b) the balance between work and personal life and (c) the safeguarding of health and safety of employees. According to the provisions, several obligations as set out below in short were imposed on the employers.

Regarding the elimination of violence and harassment to the extent that those are related to the workplace, the employers are obliged to: a) receive, investigate and manage relevant complaints in a confidential manner; b) assist the authorities in the investigation thereof; c) inform the employees regarding the relevant risk prevention and protection measures and; d) make available in the workplace information on the complaint procedures and contact details of the competent authorities. Employers with more than 20 employees (as the term “employee” is defined in the specific provisions) must adopt policies for the prevention of violence and harassment at workplace and the handling of relevant complaints. Any dismissal or adverse treatment in retaliation against a violence or harassment victim is invalid and prohibited.

 As far as the digital supervision of employment is concerned, when the electronic information system ERGANI II will be available for their business category the employers must operate the system of the platform for the recording of their employees’ work hours. A “digital employment card” will be put in use for the real-time transfer of all the work hours information (i.e., commencement and ending of work, overtime) to the “ERGANI II” system. The use of digital card has already been introduced to the market and will be gradually expanded in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Governance.

 The employers’ obligations in relation to the employees’ leave entitlement were also extended with the new provisions which provide new types of leaves or extensions of the already existing ones, provisions that aim to grant parents (including adoptive parents and parents through surrogacy) and caregivers more personal time. The new law established among other a paternity paid leave of 14 days (instead of 2 previously applicable), a parental leave of 4 months with a 2- month subsidy by the Public Employment Service both for fathers and mothers per child up to 8 years old, flexible working arrangement rights (remote working, flexible working schedule, part-time employment), caregivers’ paid leave (up to 5 days per year) etc.

The new sanctions are defined by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, and they depend on the significance of the violation, the number of the employees, the recurrence of the violation and the previous imposition of sanctions, the employment regime and the liability of the involved parties.

Violence and Harassment:

The fines are categorized as set out below:

• The ones that have a preventive nature meaning that the employer does not implement the defined measures or he does not adopt policies for the prevention of violence and harassment. In these cases, the fines fluctuate between €1,800 to €8,000 depending on the size of the company.
• The ones applicable in case a violation incident occurs. The fine which may be imposed to the employer in the aforementioned case amounts from €2,000 to €10,500, which is the largest fine stipulated by the employment legislation. Furthermore, if the employer does not take measures against the person referred to in the complaint or if the complainant faces any adverse treatment or is dismissed due to the complaint, he/she filled, a fine of €4,000 can be imposed. Any acts of violence and harassment are also prosecuted and punished under the existing civil and penal legislation provisions. With regards to the complaints for violence and harassment, the burden of proof is reversed, hence the employer has to prove that the violation did not occur.

Digital Employment Card:

The violations in case the employer refrains from operating the system of the platform or does not operate it properly are considered very significant in the corresponding scale. Moreover, for any discrepancy between the recorded work hours and the actual work hours a fine of €3,000 for each employee affected is imposed. If the employer does not maintain the relevant data for at least two years, thus impeding the verification of an employee’s claims, the fine amounts to €4,000 for each employee affected. Pursuant to the L.4808/2021, in case the digital employment card is not activated, the fine amounts up to €10,500 for each employee affected. The imposition of fines due to the non-activation of the digital employment card commences 2 months after the date of its obligatory use per industry

New parental and other leaves:

In case the employer infringes his obligations stemming from the new leave provisions or impedes the employees’ respective rights, fines are imposed as set out in the table below: