Mr. Hatzidakis has finally put his signature and it is now valid for all companies in the sector • The pressures of POEET and staff shortages played a catalytic role • Everyone is entitled to the 5.5% increase retroactively from 1/1/2023
The provisions of the Collective Labor Agreement (CLA) signed on December 15, 2022 by the Panhellenic Federation of Food and Tourism Workers (POEET) and the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers will henceforth apply to all businesses in the hotel sector for the period 2023-2024 (POX) “on the remuneration and working conditions of the employees in the hotel businesses of the sector”.
After a four-month delay, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Kostis Hatzidakis finally put his signature, declaring the SSE mandatory, after the Supreme Labor Council previously met and gave, unanimously, a positive opinion on the mandatory extension to the entire sector in which, according to 160,000 employees work with the ERGANI Information System. A catalytic role in its extension to mandatory was the lack of staff in hotels, a lack exacerbated by low wages.
“Declaring it mandatory means that all workers in the sector and businesses will have to follow the wage conditions and benefits of the contract, as well as its institutional conditions” is pointed out in the announcement of POEET. He also reminds that “the contract provides for a 5.5% increase from 1/1/2023 and a 5% increase from January 1, 2024. So those who go to work seasonally should get this increase, while those who work in continuous operation hotels and the employer did not give them the increase from 1/1/2023, then they will have to receive it retroactively”. For the federation, “this development is the stark proof that no fight is lost” and, as it notes, its effort is focused on restoring the unemployment fund to pre-memorandum levels, as well as the payment of the seniority allowance since it is a contractual term.
With regard to the arrangement of working time and rest days, the SSE provides for the following:
• The condition that provided for the granting of continuous days of weekly rest to five-day employees is abolished and the employer is given the possibility to distribute the two-day rest within the week but intermittently. During the same periods, businesses may employ employees up to one hour more per day without additional pay, provided that the average weekly work over a period of up to 8 weeks does not exceed 40 hours.
• Employees, if they work on their rest days, receive additional pay equal to one day’s wages for each rest day, which will be paid in addition by 75% if they are employed on a rest day that coincides with a Sunday or statutory holiday.
• As long as occupancy exceeds 70%, employment is allowed on rest days with an additional fee equal to one day’s salary. If it is a Sunday or holiday, the additional fee is a daily wage increased by 75%.
The contract concerns four categories of employees for whom the basic salaries are set from 1/1/2023 from 835.64 to 911.34 euros and from 1/1/2024 from 877.43 to 956.91 euros. Basic wages are supplemented by allowances for seniority, marriage, tourism education, seasonal employment, uniform, unsanitary work, food and sleep (hotel accommodation) on a case-by-case basis. The minimum wages also apply to employees of the same specialties who are employed by contractors to whom the hotel business assigns work.