Greece Labour Law Change 2021
On 19th of June 2021, the Greek Government approved many changes to their Labour Law. Some of the key changes have been detailed below.
Harassment and Violence within the Workplace
The law prohibits any form of violence or harassment within the workplace. Employers are required to clearly document and assist in the prevention and elimination of workplace violence or harassment, including having up to date records of complaints, procedures, and how the complaints were handled to show to the authorities if requested.
Employers must also ensure they are assessing the psychological effects and dangers associated with violence or harassment and the measures implemented to prevent, control and eliminate violence and harassment within the workforce.
If an employer has over 20 employees, they must ensure they have written policies in place detailing:
- How they intend to prevent and eliminate violence and harassment within the workplace
- The appointment of a designated contact who will be responsible for providing advice and guidance to employees and
- How violence or harassment complaints will be handled in a way that safeguards the victim and ensures an investigation of the complaint
Employees who have been victim to harassment or violence are entitled to take leave from work for a reasonable time on full pay with no negative consequences if there is a threat to their health and safety or life. They may also be entitled to claim for compensation.
Employers who do not comply will be met with administrative fines.
Family Protection and Leave
- Employees will be entitled to 14 working days paternity leave at the birth or adoption of a child under the age of 8 years of age.
- Employees are also entitled to post-natal maternity leave if they adopt a child under the age of 8 years or if they become mothers via surrogacy.
- Paid pre-natal exams if they can only take place during working hours.
- Each employee with parental responsibility for a child under the age of 8 years is entitled to 4 months parental leave, including adopted children under the age of 8 years. The employee must have worked for at least 1 consecutive year with the employer to be eligible.
- Additional paid childcare leave for up to 30 months after parental leave may be provided as reduced working time, including where the parent has adopted a child aged under the age of 8 years.
- Working parents or carers are entitled to take up to one days paid leave twice yearly for urgent (force majeure) family issues, such as an illness or accident where the employee’s presence is required.
- Where a child has a serious medical condition, employees who have worked for at least 6 months of continuous employment are entitled to up to 5 days carer leave to attend to the child’s medical needs.
- Working parents or carers are entitled to request flexible working arrangements to work around their childcare needs for children under the age of 12 years of age. This may include teleworking, flexible hours or part-time employment. Employees must have completed 6 months of continuous employment with the employer in order to be eligible. The employer must consider the request with respect to the needs of the employee and employer and where it chooses to reject this request, it must provide adequate reasoning for this. Employers may also impose limitations to the request or postpone it, dependent on the circumstances.
- Parents are entitled to 4 working days paid leave each calendar year in order to visit their children’s schools to monitor their performance or for general education purposes where the child has special needs.
- If an employer has over 50 employees, parents of children with disabilities are entitled to reduced working hours of 1 hour per day.4
- Additional paid and unpaid leaves may be provided to care for children, where the parent is a single or widowed parent, or for marriage leave.
Teleworking, Flexible Working and Overtime
Employers must cover the cost of teleworking expenses for their employees including equipment costs and telecommunication costs. Whilst teleworking, employers can monitor their employees to ensure work is being completed, however, they are unable to do so in a way that does not respect the employee’s private life and personal data. For example, an employer cannot require web camera monitoring to verify the employee is working.
Additionally, where an employee teleworks, they are entitled to the right to disconnect, including not responding to telephone calls and emails outside of their work hours or during their annual leave. Employees cannot be discriminated against for exercising this right.
Full time employees, working 40 hours per week, are entitled to amend their working hours to work less days at longer hours, or more days at less hours per day. For example, the employee could choose to work 5 days at 8 hours each or 4 days at 10 hours each if agreed by the employer. A minimum of a 15 minute break must be provided if the employee works for 4+ hours per day.
If part-time employees work additional hours, the rate in which they are paid for the overtime is their usual hourly rate, increased by 12%. Employees should not exceed 150 hours of overtime per year and cannot exceed more than 3 hours per day. If employees work over these limits, the employer is required to pay their usual hourly rate plus 40% for every hour of work; this inflated hourly wage could be increased to up the hourly wage plus up to 120% depending on how uncompliant the overtime is.
Unpaid leave for up to one year may be agreed between employees and their employer. This is available to both full time and part time employees.
Employers should ensure they familiarise themselves with all changes following the Labour Law update. The above summary is not exhaustive and only includes some of the key changes that NFP believe should be highlighted.
French Paternity Leave Extension
Effective the 1st of July 2021, employees are entitled to 28 days paid paternity leave upon the birth or adoption of a child.
The French Government has increased their paid paternity leave allowance to 25 days paid leave, an increase of 14 days (currently 11 days). Employer paid leave has remained unchanged at 3 days. This allows employees a total of 28 days paid paternity leave from the 1st of July 2021. Additional leave is provided for multiple births.
It is mandatory that a minimum of one week’s paid paternity leave is taken immediately following the birth or adoption of a child. The remaining days can be taken within 4 months from the date of birth or adoption.
Employers with collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that stipulate additional employer paid paternity leave should review how the above change impacts them and their applicable CBA.
Chilean COVID-19 Return to Work Requirements
In order to enable a safe and staggered return to work, the Chilean Government has introduced obligations for employers to ensure safety within the workplace.
COVID-19 Policies
One of the requirements is that employers must provide COVID-19 policies to their non-remote employees, covering hospitalisation and rehabilitation expenses as well as death resulting from a diagnosis of COVID-19. The policies must be implemented on a 12 month contract and, if COVID-19 is still a concern at the end of the policy with this requirement in force, the plan must be replaced or renewed. Once implemented, the policy must remain in force for the full 12 month period, regardless of if the employee leaves their employment during that period – in this situation, the new employer will be exempt from purchasing cover for the employee until the existing plan contract ends. The policy must be paid for in full at inception by the employer. If an employer fails to provide the required coverage, they will be liable to pay for hospitalisation, rehabilitation, and death benefits in the event that an employee contracts COVID-19.
Health and Safety Protocols
In addition to the above COVID-19 plan, employers who require employees to return to work on-site must implement occupational health and safety protocols to ensure the safe return to work. The protocol must cover health and safety measures including daily temperature testing for all parties who enter the location of work, regardless of if they are customers, third parties or employees; providing protective equipment such as masks, gloves etc.; controlling capacity within the workforce and ensuring social distancing is maintained; allowing shift changes to avoid employees travelling to and from the workplace during rush hours; and cleaning and sanitation facilities. Employers who expect employees to return to the workplace must ensure the above protocols are implemented in advance.
Teleworking
Employers must also ensure a teleworking policy is implemented for employees who are currently teleworking and for those who will continue teleworking. The policy must ensure that there is no reduction in renumeration for the employee, so long as they are able to continue completing their usual work duties and responsibilities at home. If an employee is considered to be within a high risk category and are unable to complete their usual work duties and responsibilities remotely, employers cannot reduce their renumeration but must assign the employee with tasks that do not require contact with third parties outside of those within the workforce, including the general public.