In October 2004, Greece's Corps of Labour Inspectors (SEPE) issued its annual report for 2003. Key findings include evidence of an increasing trend towards flexibility at work and a significant increase in accidents at work, especially in particular sectors and occupational categories.
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In October 2004, Greece's Corps of Labour Inspectors (SEPE) issued its annual report for 2003. Key findings include evidence of an increasing trend towards flexibility at work and a significant increase in accidents at work, especially in particular sectors and occupational categories.
According to the relevant legislative framework (Law 2639/98 on 'regulation of labour relations, establishment of a Corps of Labour Inspectors and other provisions'), the main mission of the Corps of Labour Inspectors (SEPE) is to enforce the provisions of labour legislation, safeguard industrial peace and keep citizens (both workers and employers) up to date on their rights and obligations, and the hazards they are exposed to in the workplace (GR0102100F).
Apart from its auxiliary administrative and legal departments, SEPE is divided into two basic sections with clearly defined scopes and competencies, the Social Labour Inspectorate and the Technical/Sanitary Labour Inspectorate. The principal role of the Social Labour Inspectorate staff is to carry out inspections regarding enforcement of the general protective labour legislation, workers’ social insurance coverage and the legality of their employment, as well as providing counselling, instructions and suggestions to workers and employers on the effective application of the existing provisions. The basic tasks of the Technical and Sanitary Labour Inspectorate include inspections regarding the enforcement of the legislation on workers’ health and safety, the causes of serious and fatal accidents at work, the nature and causes of occupational illnesses, making suggestions for actions to safeguard workers’ health and safety, and providing advice, instructions and suggestions to workers and employers on these matters.
The SEPE’s annual progress report constitutes a useful tool for recording the main trends in labour relations and employment matters in the Greek labour market. At the same time, it indicates the extent to which employers have complied with the current statutory provisions. The report on 2003 was published in October 2004, and represents SEPE’s third successive attempt to summarise the most significant findings of the inspections carried out by labour inspectors. As with previous reports (GR0309105F), the 2003 report is made up of individual sections on SEPE and its plans for action in the coming period, as well as the results of the on-site visits to companies carried out by the Social Labour Inspectorate and the Technical/Sanitary Labour Inspectorate.
Results of action by the Social Labour Inspectorate
Table 1 below gives a general outline of the action taken by the Social Labour Inspectorate during 2003, and the outcomes.
| Inspections conducted | 31,765 | |
| Complaints filed by inspectors | 10,349 | |
| Fines levied by inspectors | 8,013 | |
| Total value of fines | EUR 6,662,070 | |
| Labour disputes: | 15,781 | |
| - resolved | 8,178 | |
| - called off | 4,053 | |
| - referred to the courts | 3,550 | |
| - amount of money paid | EUR 8.072.132 | |
| - complaints on which legal action initiated | 1,259 | |
| Number of staff lists recorded: | 646,344 | |
| - number of staff entered on lists | 2,672,498 | |
| Permits issued to work overtime exceeding maximum working hours: | 26,838 | |
| - total staff involved | 637,447 | |
| - total number of hours of overtime | 20,130,172 | |
| Permits issued to work on Sundays: | 8,426 | |
| - total staff involved | 122,173 | |
| Special forms of employment: | ||
| - number of enterprise s | 143,709 | |
| - total agreements on issue | 286,550 | |
Source: SEPE 2003 progress report
Table 1 indicates the breadth of tasks carried out by the social labour inspectors, as well as the extent of the various types of labour law violations. During 2003, there were 31,765 on-site inspections of companies and a total of 10,849 sanctions imposed on employers (2,336 complaints and 8,513 fines). The majority (61%) of the complaints lodged against employers by the Social Labour Inspectorate concerned non-payment of back pay, an issue that is usually settled via the labour disputes procedure (GR0403102T). Furthermore, 10.5% of such fines referred to violations of the rules on companies’ operating hours and their employees’ working hours, and most were levied on employers in the retail sales and hotels/restaurants sectors. Overall, these sectors have the highest rates of sanctions imposed by the inspectors responsible for implementation of labour legislation.
Employers are obliged to maintain up-to-date 'staff lists', listing their employees, and instances of overdue staff lists have been a frequent cause of fines being levied on companies. Monitoring of companies obligations in this area was carried out more strictly and uniformly throughout Greece over 2003, resulting in a 54% increase in the amount of fines levied, compared with 2002. As table 2 below shows, both the number of staff lists recorded by the Labour Inspectorate and the number of employees entered in these lists have increased significantly in recent years.
| Year | Number of lists | Staff entered |
| 2003 | 646,344 | 2,672,498 |
| 2002 | 575,496 | 2,651,097 |
| 2001 | 450,201 | 2,780,081 |
Source: SEPE 2003 progress report.
With regard to labour disputes resolved through the intervention of SEPE, a total of 14,781 such disputes occurred in 2003, which were broken down as follows:
6,642 (42.2%) over delayed or non-payment of back pay;
3,343 (21.4%) over termination of employment contracts;
2,197 (14.1%) over failure to grant annual holidays or pay holiday bonuses;
2,085 (13.4%) over various other issues;
1,138 (5.4%) over failure to pay public holiday bonuses;
362 (3.1%) over exceeding statutory working hours; and
14 (0.25%) over equality-related matters.
It appears that the intervention of the social labour inspectors helped smooth out labour disputes in most cases since, of all the cases examined:
52% were resolved;
26% were called off; and
only 22% were referred to the courts.
Of particular interest are the data given in the report regarding permits granted by the Social Labour Inspectorate to perform overtime exceeding maximum working hours, night work or Sunday work - see table 3 below. A trend towards granting fewer permits of the latter two types has been noted. However, the number of permits to work overtime exceeding maximum working hours continues to rise, a fact that commentators believe runs counter to the spirit of the existing legislative framework. Specifically, Law 2874/2000 aimed to increase employment by reducing both legal and illegal overtime exceeding maximum working hours (GR0012192F), a practice which entails higher levels of pay premia. For some observers, the incongruity between the legislative regulation and employers’ desire for more overtime exceeding maximum working hours points to the difficulty of trying to reduce working time in Greece.
| . | Year | Permits | Employees involved | Hours of overtime |
| Permits to work overtime exceeding maximum working hours | 2003 | 26,838 | 637,447 | 20,130,172 |
| 2002 | 29,616 | 515,774 | 18,866,465 | |
| 2001 | 21,799 | 469,163 | 15,440,254 | |
| Permits to work Sundays | 2003 | 8,426 | 122,173 | - |
| 2002 | 9,798 | 139,478 | - | |
| 2001 | 8,334 | 117,422 | - |
Source: SEPE 2003 progress report.
With regard to 'flexible forms of employment' the available data indicate a significant increase in flexible work practices - see table 4 below - as opposed to full-time open-ended employment, though this continues to be the principal form of employment. The only exception is home working, which is still on the decrease.
| Year | Part-time employment | Subsidised short-time work | Contracts for works or for services | Home working or piecework | Total |
| 2003 | 224,134 | 36,287 | 24,737 | 1,392 | 286,550 |
| 2002 | 207,237 | 35,444 | 16,859 | 1,935 | 261,475 |
| 2001 | 172,786 | 29,532 | 17,876 | 8,181 | 228,375 |
Source: SEPE 2003 progress report.
Results of the activity of the Technical/Sanitary Labour Inspectorate
Table 5 below summarises the results of the inspections carried by the Technical/Sanitary Labour Inspectorate during 2003.
| Inspections conducted | 27,725 | |
| Complaints filed by inspectors | 1,608 | 6,299 |
| Work interruptions ordered | 1,650 | |
| Fines levied | 3,041 | |
| Total value of fines | EUR 3,799,130 | |
| Accidents reported | 6,235 | |
| Fatal accidents reported | 145 | |
Source: SEPE 2003 progress report.
A key point to emerge from the data in table 5 is the number of reports of accidents at work and fatal accidents. Compared with previous years, the data indicate a significant increase in reports of accidents at work and a marginal increase in fatal accidents, which remain at high levels in international terms (GR0211103F). The sector with the greatest health and safety hazards, according to the findings of inspections, is construction, followed by the food and beverages industry. High levels of risk are also found in wholesale and retail trade and equipment and metal-products manufacturing. The highest number of sanctions was imposed on enterprises in these sectors, as were most re-inspection procedures to check whether the law was being enforced.
Other important points emerging from the SEPE report on the level of worker protection from occupational hazards are that:
general practitioners and other medical specialists usually carry out works doctors’ duties, since there is a lack of specialised works doctors;
health and safety rules are regularly breached on worksites and building sites. On small worksites in particular there is substantial resistance to complying with the basic obligations;
in many cases, medical records are not kept and laboratory tests not carried out; and
there is insufficient verification of whether employers have properly informed their personnel about the dangers inherent in their jobs and the importance of using individual means of protection.
Commentary
Important conclusions may be drawn from the data in the 2003 SEPE report, with regard to the trends noted in the area of employment and the trends towards flexibilisation of labour relations. The spread of flexible forms of employment and the desire of employers to extend daily and weekly working hours by using overtime exceeding maximum working hours and Sunday working is to a significant extent due to the process of flexibilisation and relaxation of the legislative framework by the authorities at the beginning of the 1990s and the parallel policies to promote flexibility in the Greek labour market.
The results of the inspections regarding workers’ health and safety conditions are also of particular importance, since fatal accidents at work remain at high levels in international comparison, and the overall number of accidents at work has increased. These developments, given the lack of a rigorously documented monitoring system for occupational illnesses, are particularly troubling with regard to the protection of the health of Greek workers. Therefore the enrichment of worker protection legislation over the last decade, resulting from the transposition into national law of relevant EU Directives, along with the policies pursued on health and safety, should be combined with stricter measures for monitoring and oversight by local SEPE offices. This situation is particularly widespread in certain sectors of economic activity and occupational categories, construction among them, where the pace of work was substantially speeded up during 2003 due to the necessity to complete the works for the 2004 Olympic Games. (Lefteris Kretsos, INE/GSEE-ADEDY)
Eurofound rekommenderar att denna publikation citeras enligt följande.
Eurofound (2004), Labour Inspectorate reports on work in 2003, article.
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