A clarifying circular for the proper implementation of the Digital Work Card in the new sectors being included in the measure in two phases was issued by the Secretary General for Labour Relations of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Nikos Milapidis.
The Minister of Labour and Social Security, Niki Kerameus, stated:
“The Digital Work Card is an important tool, which ensures that workers are paid for their actual working time. Its implementation contributes to combating underreported and undeclared work, strengthening the revenues of the social security system, while workers as well as healthy businesses are protected from unfair competition.
The effectiveness of the measure is also confirmed by the official data of the information system "ERGANI", as the use of the Digital Work Card has led to increases in declared overtime of up to +1200% in specific sectors, while in 2025, 2.7 million more overtime hours were declared compared to 2024.
At the same time, with the two new phases of expansion of the Digital Work Card, an additional 500,000 workers approximately are covered. Overall, the workers protected by the measure, following the new expansions as well, are estimated to amount to approximately 2,500,000”.
The first phase of the new expansion of the Digital Work Card was put into pilot implementation on 2 June 2026 and will last until 11 October, while from 12 October the full implementation begins for workers employed in:
Human health activities (hospitals, treatment and diagnostic centers) excluding doctors
Employment support activities
Telecommunications
Individual sectors of services, such as hair salons, beauty centers and dry cleaners
Service provision activities in buildings and outdoor areas, mainly cleaning services
The second phase of the expansion of the Digital Work Card began on 29 June 2026, will be applied on a pilot basis until 15 November, while from 16 November full implementation also begins here for workers employed in:
Consulting services, advertising and other office activities
Repairs
Storage and transport support activities (logistics)
Management of water and wastewater
Games of chance
During the period that elapsed since the start of the pilot period, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security conducted extensive dialogue with representatives of employees and employers of the above sectors on the implementation of the Digital Work Card.
The conclusions of the dialogue and the particularities of each sector were taken into account for the formulation of the new clarifying circular.
It is worth noting that in the first seven months of 2026, more than 5.7 million overtime hours have already been recorded in the sectors included in the DWC, resulting in approximately 1.54 million more overtime hours compared to the first seven months of 2025 (increase of +36.8%):
Wholesale Trade: increase of 212.8% (+594,913 overtime hours)
Administrative and support services in tourism: increase of 172.8% (+47,991 overtime hours)
Food service: +67.2% on a seven-month basis (+323,049 overtime hours)
Industry: +15.4% on a seven-month basis (+267,916 overtime hours)