Labor inspectors target under-declared labor

Greece's Labor Ministry is planning to crack down on employers using old and new tricks in order to dodge inspections and get away with breaking labor regulations.

The ministry will not only target employers who haven’t registered their employees but also those who under-report the hours they work.

Apart from intensified and targeted inspections, the instruments the ministry plans to employ include a series of legislative provisions that will operate as a strong counterincentive for failing to fully declare all workers.

These include the introduction of more expensive overtime (increased by as much as 12 percent) for part-time workers, the reduction of social security contributions for full-time work, the use of the electronic labor card and the creation of a register where enterprises that adhere to the law will be offered incentives and tax exemptions or discounts for them.

According to the estimates of the Labor Inspection Squad (SEPE), under-declared labor is becoming increasingly prevalent, concerning around one in every 10 workers and one in every five enterprises.

At the focus of inspections will be workers declared to work for two, or four or five hours per day, while they may actually work for over eight hours.