Digital Work Card Mandatory in Tourism and Hospitality by March 2025

Greece is making the use of the digital work card mandatory in the tourism hospitality and food sectors, as of March 1, 2025. Following the implementation of the digital tool in these sectors, a total of approximately 1.5 million employees will be covered.

At the same time, the Ministry of Labor is considering reducing or exempting overtime from social security contributions for businesses that implement digital work cards.

The goal is to ensure that overtime recorded in the digital work card is not subject to social security contributions, allowing employees in these businesses to receive higher earnings while also making jobs in these sectors more attractive.

The digital work card will be applied to businesses such as hotels, accommodations, rental rooms, camping sites, and food service establishments.

Employers in the tourism and hospitality industry who fail to comply with the regulation will be subject to fines of up to 10,500 euros per violation.

The measure is already being implemented for approximately 750,000 employees nationwide including those working in banks, large supermarkets, insurance companies, security firms, and public utilities, with the total number of businesses affected estimated at 73,000.

With its expansion to the food service and tourism sectors, the number of employees covered by the work card is expected to reach approximately 1.5 million in total.

The goal of the card is to fully safeguard employees’ rights by ensuring accurate tracking of actual working hours and proper compensation. This helps combat exploitative practices such as undeclared overtime and illegal work schedule changes.

According to “Ergani,” following the implementation of the digital work card across multiple sectors, reported overtime increased by 815,509 hours compared to the years before its application.

Source: Tovima.com