A new bill being drafted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security will bring significant improvements for working parents, Labour Minister Niki Kerameos said in an interview with ERT.
The minister said that in recent years the Ministry of Labour and Social Security has focused on supporting working parents through coordinated initiatives, including extending maternity leave from 6 to 9 months, introducing paternity leave, allowing part of maternity leave to be transferred to the father, introducing leave for assisted reproduction, and making the parental leave benefit tax-free, non-assignable and exempt from seizure.
The new bill will further support the take-up of parental leave by allowing complete flexibility over when it is taken.
“Every working parent is entitled to four months of parental leave for each child up to the age of eight. What does the current framework say? If, for example, you have two children, a year must elapse between taking leave for the first and second child. That one-year requirement will be abolished. There must be complete freedom over exactly how you take the leave,” the minister explained.
The bill will also stipulate that when both parents work for the same employer, they will no longer need to state the order in which they will take leave. In addition, carer’s leave will be available before an employee has completed six months of service.
“These measures are designed first and foremost to support working parents, giving them greater flexibility in the support they need to combine their personal and family lives with their working lives,” the minister said.
The bill will also include provisions to limit the uncontrolled use of artificial intelligence in the labour market.
Niki Kerameos said artificial intelligence was a highly useful tool that would help boost productivity, particularly in the labour market, but that safeguards were needed.
The bill, which is being drafted, aims to clarify how the algorithm used to manage platform workers operates.
“Today there are businesses and workers on platforms, and every aspect of their working lives is governed by an algorithm. What responsibilities they take on, when they are promoted, how their working relationship is ended,” the minister explained, adding that the aim was to ensure complete transparency over the data the algorithm takes into account, as well as human oversight of critical decisions.
The minister said the bill stems from a European directive and, in keeping with her established practice, is the subject of extensive consultation with the National Social Partners.
The minister also discussed the latest expansion of the Digital Work Card, which will be rolled out in two phases, starting this week.
“From this week, an additional 500,000 workers will start using the Digital Work Card, in two phases. The first phase starts now, and the second in November. Sectors include telecommunications, private healthcare, dry cleaners, hairdressers, consultancies, advertising agencies, logistics, repairs and cleaning services… An additional 500,000 workers will be covered by the Digital Work Card, which now protects around 2,500,000 workers,” the minister said, before going on to discuss the benefits of the measure.
The Digital Work Card ensures that employees are paid for the hours they actually work, helps improve conditions across the labour market and protects fair competition. It also significantly strengthens social security funds, creating fiscal headroom to address social injustices, such as ending cuts to survivors’ pensions.
Niki Kerameos pointed to a significant increase in recorded overtime in sectors using the Digital Work Card, saying that in some sectors it had risen by as much as 1,200%.
“That is a huge figure and shows exactly how necessary this tool was,” the minister said, adding that a large part of the fall in unemployment—which is now at its lowest level in 18 years, at 7.4%—was due to the effective implementation and expansion of the Digital Work Card.
On unemployment in particular, the minister stressed that further reductions would require increasingly targeted measures.
“It is easier to bring unemployment down from 20% to 17%, and much harder to take it from 10% to 7%. Why? Because gradually you reach what we call the hard core of unemployment,” she said.
The minister explained that efforts are now focused on groups where there is still significant scope to increase employment, including women, particularly unemployed mothers, and people living in regional areas.
In this context, she referred to targeted programmes run by the Public Employment Service (DYPA), including a subsidised employment programme for unemployed women offering subsidies of up to 80%, as well as a new programme supporting remote work for people living in remote areas, with a subsidy covering 90% of the basic salary and social security contributions for one year.
As she stressed, “we want to give them a boost, open up a new pool of workers and create new opportunities for these prospective employees to work while staying where they live”.
She also noted that “today Greece has the highest employment rate the country has ever recorded. Is that a reason for complacency? No. There are many challenges, we have a way to go on wages, and we still have a long way to go”.
Finally, Niki Kerameos discussed the new Rebrain Greece initiative, which will take place on 28 November in Munich. It is part of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s efforts to attract Greek professionals living and working abroad and connect them with businesses operating in Greece.
She also highlighted the gradual reversal of brain drain, presenting figures on the return of Greeks who emigrated during the years of the economic crisis.
“On 28 November, in Munich, there will be a new Rebrain Greece initiative. Let me remind you that 770,000 of our fellow citizens left during the crisis years. A total of 473,000 have already returned, or about 62%. We still have a way to go, but we are already seeing a significant trend towards return,” the minister said, underlining the importance of continuing initiatives to bring skilled workers back and make use of the professional opportunities emerging in the Greek labour market.