Digital work card throughout the entire Public Sector, for monitoring employees' working hours, is being promoted by the Ministry of Interior.
The digital card will record the time of arrival and departure, as well as any change in the daily working hours of employees in the core and broader public sector, including the personnel of local authorities with a public or private law employment relationship, of indefinite or fixed term.
The aim of this reform is the more effective management of the working hours of public sector employees, so as to limit phenomena of abuse or circumvention, while at the same time achieving a reduction in the administrative bureaucracy associated with handwritten or inaccurate recording systems.
With the relevant article 102 of the bill “Reform of the grading structure, the system of grade promotions and the system for selecting heads…”, which was passed last Tuesday by the Parliament, a new unified framework for recording working time is created through the Human Resources Management System (HRMS), while at the same time specific restrictions are imposed regarding the use and processing of the data.
The main change is that Public Sector entities will have to keep in the HRMS data for measuring working time. Where a timekeeping system already exists, its interoperability with the HRMS is provided for, provided this is technically feasible.
Responsibility for the proper observance of working hours lies with the heads of the organizational units, who are responsible for the accuracy of the entries concerning the personnel they supervise.
The Deputy Minister of Interior, Vivi Charalampogianni, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency that at the ministry “we are implementing a holistic reform for the management of human resources in public administration, focused on continuous training, on upgrading the role and on highlighting the capabilities and skills of its staff”.
She added that “this new approach, which aims at the optimal service of citizens, drives us toward the full modernization of the system for managing the working hours of public sector employees. We continue for a public sector that is efficient, effective, with equal opportunities and rules for all”.
Of particular importance is the provision that the data of the digital card cannot be used freely for any official purpose.
The article explicitly limits their use to the observance of working hours, the calculation of pay and compensation for overtime work, statistical processing, and legality control by the competent bodies.
At the same time, their use is prohibited for purposes not connected with the above functions, as well as the adverse treatment of an employee based on these specific data, with the exception of what is provided for in disciplinary and service procedures.
Through the mandatory and universal application of the digital card, the competent ministry seeks to eliminate the phenomenon of “slackers”, while at the same time ensuring secure and tiered access to workplaces.
This approach aims at the definitive prevention of phenomena of circumvention of working hours and the elimination of expenditure on fictitious overtime, leading to a more meticulous control of public resources.
The technical details for implementing the measure will be determined by a Joint Decision of the competent ministers. The measure will initially be implemented on a pilot basis and then entities will be gradually included, while exceptions will be provided for employees who perform external service or are on assignment.
Cases of use of biometric technology
Paragraphs 7 to 10 of the article provide for the use of biometric technology in Public Sector services.
Biometric technology is not provided for as the usual way of using the digital card, but it may be applied in exceptional cases for the identification and recording of the physical presence of employees.
It mainly concerns areas in which strict access control is required due to the classified nature of the facilities, the protection of critical infrastructure, or reasons of national security, and where there is no other, less intrusive means of achieving this purpose.
This was deemed appropriate because biometrics, that is, the measurement of human characteristics, such as fingerprints, which are used in technological systems for the recognition of individuals (a characteristic example being the unlocking of mobile devices), is considered the safest and most reliable way of verifying identity.
It is also provided that a biometric system may be activated in an entity where, following an audit by the National Transparency Authority or a disciplinary procedure, repeated and substantial violations of working hours observance by the same or a different person have been established within a period of twelve months.
However, even in this case biometric recording is not activated automatically. A documentation report is required from the controller, establishing the inadequacy or ineffectiveness of the digital card, as well as an opinion from the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA).
The Ministry of Interior has already concluded a Programmatic Agreement with Information Society so that within the second half of 2027 all the necessary operational issues for the implementation of the measure will have been completed.