Digital Work Card: How It Works – The Schedule

During the first phase of the implementation of the digital work card system, which will start on 1 July 2022, only companies belonging to the Supermarket sector and employing more than 250 employees in total, as well as all the banks in the country, will be compulsorily included in the system. These companies-employers are obliged, as of the above date (1.7.2022), to have and activate respectively, a digital work card system for all their employees with a contract or dependent employment relationship, who are physically present at the place of work of the company, including employees employed in the above companies through temporary employment agencies.

 

The inventory process of digital management of working time for these businesses-employers starts on 1 June 2022 and must be completed by 30 June 2022 while for other businesses it starts from 1/10/2022 and must be completed by 30/11/2022. Therefore, the forms that employers will submit to ERGANI II will also change and will be as follows:

 

Α. Declaration of Change of Employment Relationship Data that includes the following data: contractual working hours per week, Employment System (5-day/6-day), Break Data, and Possibility of Flexible Working Schedule.

The declaration data will be completed by employers who will join the digital card system later as follows:

• At the first implementation in an inventory manner, in order to have all their employees enrolled by 30/6/2022. The inventory procedure can also be carried out in stages from 1/6/2022 to 30/6/2022 at the latest while for other businesses from 1/10/2022 to 30/11/2022 (which may be phased in),
• Regarding all businesses for each new recruitment carried out from 1/6/2022 onwards, these data (i.e. basic employer’s data, reference date of the declaration/change, employee’s data, contractual weekly working hours with identification of the employee’s attendance, 5-day or 6-day work, break duration and whether it is during or off working hours and flexible working schedule) are completed in the E3 form, in which a field for the time of departure on the first day of recruitment is added in order to form a timetable for the 1st day,
• In cases of changes to the declaration data the information shall be submitted before the change and in any case before the employee concerned takes up his/her duties.

 

Β. Declaration of Working Time Management which will include the following data: data for employees with fixed weekly working hours, data for employees with variable/modified daily working hours and data on employee leave (not only annual leave) which will be declared in an inventory manner within the first 10 days of the month following the month in which the leave is granted. Information on working hours (fixed or variable) should be submitted before employees take up their duties.

As soon as the employees will join the digital management of working time (i.e., 1/6/2022 for enterprises in the first phase and beyond – after 1/10/2022 for other companies), the E4-Supplementary Hours will no longer be submitted, and the declaration of Working Time Management will have to be submitted on the same day.

The details of the working hours (fixed or variable) will be submitted as follows:

• During the first implementation (from 1/6/2022 to 30/6/2022), in an inventory manner and on the same day for all their employees who were registered as part of the Digital Management of Working Time, so any change in the work schedule for these employees will no longer be declared with E4 Supplementary Hours. (For other businesses it will be from 1/10/2022 to 30/11/2022),
• In each new recruitment carried out from 1/6/2022 onwards for employees joining the Digital Management of Working Time system. In this case, any change in the work schedule for new employees ceases to be declared on the E4 Supplementary Hours Form,
• In cases of changes in the management of working time. The information shall be submitted before the change and in any case before the employee concerned takes up his/her duties.

 

The obligation to submit E8 for the declaration of Legal Overtime Employment still exists.

When submitting the leave details, the type of leave and the start and end time of the leave (if the leave is for specific hours) will also be indicated. The declaration of leave will be submitted by employers – companies belonging to the banking and Supermarket sector, as these companies are defined in Part A of the Ministerial Decision, for leave granted from 1/6/2022 to 30/6/2022 to employees who have joined the digital management of working time and the digital card system. The declaration on authorizations will be submitted for authorizations granted from 1/10/2022 to 30/11/2022 for workers employed in other undertakings

From the date of mandatory activation of the Digital Employment Card, employers are required to maintain a system for keeping track of the working time of their employees, where the actual start and end of their employees’ employment is recorded directly. To this end, they can use software provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to keep track of their employees’ working time on a transitional basis, until they install their own system for keeping track of their employees’ working time. This system transmits automated and real-time records of the start and end of employment of workers in the ERGANI II system.

 

Infringements of the company’s digital card obligations can be divided into general and individual infringements.

General infringements (i.e., the employer’s obligations towards public authorities) in relation to the digital employment card are classified by law as ‘very serious infringements’. These include:

Violations of the employer’s obligation to have and operate a digital system for measuring working time, in real time, or to operate a digital system provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, directly connected and interoperable with the ERGANI II System, for all of its employees with a contract or dependent employment relationship under private law who are physically present in the enterprise, including loaned personnel.

Breach of the employer’s obligation to notify immediately, by any appropriate means, the relevant Labour Inspectorate in the event of an event of force majeure or objective impossibility not attributable to the employer’s fault, which prevents the operation of the system for measuring employees’ working time or the transmission of data from that system to the ERGANI II system.

Infringement of the employer’s obligation to notify the relevant Labour Inspectorate immediately, by any appropriate means, as soon as the situation of force majeure or objective impossibility not due to the employer’s fault, which prevents the operation of the system for measuring employees’ working time or the transmission of data from that system to the ERGANI II system, has ended.

Non-compliance by the employer with the obligation to record the digital organisation of working time in the ERGANI II system for all employees with a contract or a private-law employment relationship in the enterprise with a physical presence, including borrowed staff.

Failure to submit a declaration of the leave issued in census form within the first ten days of the month following the month in which it was granted.

Failure to submit an employee’s “Declaration of Working Time”.

 

Fines for individual infringements (breaches of the employer’s obligations concerning an individual employee) are calculated separately for each employee affected by the infringements, which include:

Failure to activate an employee’s digital work card. (EUR 10.500 for each employee concerned)

Failure to correctly submit, or even failing to submit, the details of an employee’s digital work card for the actual start or actual end of employment. (EUR 3.000 for each worker concerned)

Applying flexible working hours to an employee for whom flexible attendance and the digital work card have not been activated, even though such an obligation exists. (EUR 2.000 for each worker concerned)

Failure to retain for a period of at least ten (10) years the data of the time and attendance measurement system, when it is not possible to check and verify the financial claims of an employee in a labour dispute in general. (EUR 4.000 for each employee concerned)

Failure to submit a declaration of employment data in the ERGANI II system in the event of a change in the declaration data before the change is implemented and in any case before the employee starts service. (EUR 2.000 for each worker concerned)

Failure to submit a “Working Time Organisation” of a part-time employee in the event of a change in the Working Time Organisation before the implementation of the change and in any case before the employee takes up service. (EUR 2.000 for each employee concerned)

Failure to submit a “Working Time Organisation” of a full-time employee in the case of a change in the Working Time Organisation before the change is implemented and in any case before the employee takes up service. (EUR 600 for each worker concerned)”.

For the imposition of administrative sanctions (fines), the following shall be considered: i) the seriousness of the infringement, ii) the number of employees, iii) the repeated imposition of sanctions for similar infringements, iv) the number of employees affected, v) the size of the enterprise, vi) the employment status, vii) culpability.

 

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