Employee Rights Priority for Greek Tourism, Labor Ministries

Ensuring that employee rights are respected and labor laws obeyed are the top priorities for the Greek labor and tourism ministries as part of actions to improve working conditions in the country and address staff shortages.

These issues were discussed during a meeting between Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni and her counterpart at the Labor Ministry Domna Michailidou.

Among others, Michailidou said the ministry had pushed forward the decision to increase the basic wage in order to support seasonal employees in tourism.

Labor Ministry Domna Michailidou and Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni.

“Our main concern,” she said, “is to support the workforce in tourism, especially in view of the summer season. In this direction, we moved forward the increase in the minimum wage in order to cover those who work in tourism and are not protected by a collective labor agreement.”

The minister went on to stress that the focus was now on ensuring strict compliance with labor legislation in the tourism sector.

On her part, Kefalogianni underlined the importance of employees being rewarded for their role in establishing the Greek tourism product as a world leader.

“This is achieved by increasing wages and ensuring excellent working conditions,” she said, adding that tourism, “which is its human resources” was a driving force of the Greek economy.

In the meantime, the tourism sector is unable to find employees to man hotels and restaurants ahead of the season. According to the latest estimate, there are currently 60,000 jobs positions that have not been filled.