Greece to Grant 167,925 Residence Permits to 3rd Country Nationals to Meet Staff Shortages

The Greek government announced this week that in order to meet staffing demands for businesses in Greece it will grant a total of 167,925 residence permits to third country nationals for the 2023-2024 period.

The joint ministerial decision published in the Government Gazette enables tourism enterprises to hire employees from third countries to meet staffing needs and addresses the growing problem of staff shortages.

According to the labor ministry announcement, requests by regional authorities for staffing needs were much higher at 380,000.

Additionally, the ministry goes on to add that measures have been taken to protect the employment of Greek and EU workers but at the same time to meet the requirement of local businesses, which in certain sectors including tourism have increased compared to previous years.

The revised terms pave the way for third country nationals to be hired mainly in sectors where there is no demand by Greek or EU workers and across regional units.

Indicatively, the Greek tourism season is ready to kick off with an estimated 75,000 positions still empty up from 60,000 a year ago and from 53,000 in 2021 and in view of an increasing number of tourist arrivals.

According to the labor ministry, of the 167,925 open job positions, 20,000 are set to be covered through bilateral agreements between Greece and Egypt and Bangladesh. Additionally, of the remaining 147,925 positions, 113,467 concern the primary sector: of these, 91,630 are for seasonal work for three to nine months; 16,572 contract work for at least 12 months; and 5,265 for fishermen of Egyptian origin who can remain in the country for a maximum period of 11 months.

A total 9,261 workers compared to 2,811 in the previous two years has been allocated to F&B and accommodation sectors much lower than the demand cited by regional authorities, who had requested 80,316 workers.

The issue of shortages was made public last year by former president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Andreas Andreadis, who called on the government to take immediate action noting that “the quality of our tourism product is at risk”. In response to Andreadis, the Panhellenic Federation of Catering and Tourist Industry Employees (POEET) said the reasons jobs in tourism were not being filled had to do with the working conditions, the pay and the seasonality of posts. The Hellenic Hoteliers Federation and the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels sent a letter to government officials requesting changes to the law.

The labor laws that apply to Greek and EU employees in terms of wages, minimum wage, working hours, health and safety, and accommodation for seasonal employees apply to third country nationals granted temporary residence permits, the labor ministry said.

Greece is not the only country facing tourism staff shortages. Earlier this month, a study presented at ITB Berlin revealed that 68 percent of travel and tourism enterprises globally are currently understaffed while 88 percent of the industry acknowledges workforce deficiencies.

The Greek Travel Pages has a dedicated online job-find service that helps tourism industry enterprises and job placement services in Greece find the right people. If you’re looking for a job in the Greek tourism industry, check out GTP Careers in Tourism.