Greece change of employer for a third country worker and the six month rule

A third-country national brought to Greece through metaklisi is bound to the original employer for the whole of the first contract, which under article 82 of Law 5038/2023 as amended by Law 5275/2026 cannot exceed six months. After that period a change of employer is allowed, but only within the same occupation.

Two rules run in parallel and are regularly confused. The first governs time, meaning when a move is permitted. The second governs substance, meaning where the worker is allowed to go. An employer can satisfy the first and breach the second, and the outcome is identical: the notification is refused and the employment is unlawful from the day of refusal.

The three cases before six months

The lock is not absolute. Law 5275/2026 identifies three situations in which a change of employer is permitted before the six months elapse.

The first is a serious breach of the employment terms by the original employer, as those terms appear in the contract. Here the legislation protects the worker from being trapped with an employer who does not pay or does not insure.

The second is a consensual termination of the employment relationship, accompanied by notification of a new employer's intention to hire the worker. That notification is part of the file, not a later formality. Without it, the agreement of the two parties is not enough.

The third is unilateral termination of the contract by the original employer under labour law. A worker who was dismissed is not punished with the loss of the right to work.

The occupation rule outlasts the six months

The restriction that surprises most incoming employers is not the six months but the occupation. Until the first residence permit expires, the worker has to keep the occupation recorded in the first employment contract. A move into another sector is not permitted.

In practice, an agricultural worker brought in for farm work cannot move to a hotel in month six, even if both employers agree and even if the hotel pays more. The competent service refuses the change on grounds of sector change, in the same way it refuses it for failure to complete the six months.

Notification to the migration service does not cancel the labour duties. The new employer files the E3 hiring notification in the ERGANI system before work starts and registers the worker with EFKA, while the previous employer files the termination. The three entries have to agree on dates. A two week gap between the end of one relationship and the notification of the next appears at inspection as a period without insurance, and the service asks for an explanation before approving the change.

The 45 days that sit on the new employer

The change notification is filed digitally and the competent service has 45 days to examine it and approve or refuse. Employment is permitted during that window, and that is where the real exposure for the new employer sits.

The specific failure mode is a refusal after work has started. The new employer hires, the worker works six weeks, and the service then refuses the change because the six months were not complete or because the occupation differed. The employment is treated as unlawful and the business is exposed to the penalties set out in Greek labour inspection fines, not the worker.

The check that prevents that outcome happens before signature and has three questions. When did the first contract start, what occupation appears on the first residence permit, and which of the three lawful grounds ends the previous relationship. If a candidate cannot produce the first permit and the first contract, the new employer does not hold the facts needed to price its own risk.

Being tied to one employer is a common feature of single permits across the European Union, and the revision of the European framework moves towards easier mobility. That comparison sits in the single permit explained, while the original route that produces the first contract is set out in the E.4 metaklisi procedure.

The six month rule limits mobility, and it also gives the original employer a predictable window in which to recover the cost of the metaklisi. The employers page describes how Werklist documents the occupation from the first contract, so that a later change does not run into a mismatch between papers.