Greek labour inspection and the fines for illegally employing foreign workers

The Greek Labour Inspectorate imposes a fine of 10,500 euros per undeclared worker, an amount introduced by Law 4554/2018 that rises to 31,500 euros on repeat. Employing a third-country national without the required work authorisation attracts a separate fine of up to 5,000 euros. The two amounts add together.

That addition is why an inspection at a construction site or a hotel costs more than the employer expects. One worker found on shift without a hiring notification and without a valid permit produces two violations, not one, and every additional name multiplies the sum.

How the fine is calculated

The undeclared work penalty is flat and does not scale with the size of the business. It is 10,500 euros for each worker found without a registration, whether the company employs three people or three hundred. Law 4554/2018 provides for a reduction if the employer hires the undeclared worker on a full-time contract, with the size of the reduction depending on the contract length the employer commits to.

Alongside that runs the general fine schedule set by ministerial decision 60201/D7.1422. Administrative documentation breaches start at 300 euros and reach 2,000, record keeping breaches run from 500 to 3,000 euros, breaches on the method of paying wages from 1,000 to 4,000 euros, and the more serious breaches reach 8,000 euros. At individual level, an unrecorded overtime hour is charged at 400 euros per worker and unrecorded extended hours at 1,000 euros per worker.

Where inspections are pointed

The Labour Inspectorate publishes its priority sectors and the same list recurs: food service, retail and wholesale trade, accommodation, vehicle repair shops, fuel stations, industrial parks, hair salons, transport, cleaning services, construction, security services and garment manufacturing. These are the same sectors that employ most of the third-country workforce, so the undeclared work check and the residence legality check happen on the same visit.

The time an employer has before an inspection is zero, because the duty is discharged before work begins. The E3 hiring notification is filed in the ERGANI information system on the same day at the latest and before the worker takes up duties. There is no next-day correction. A worker who did one shift before registration is undeclared in law, even if the notification is filed hours later.

In sectors covered by the digital work card, an inspection does not even need a site visit to find the discrepancy. Declared shift start and end are recorded in real time and compared against the schedule filed in ERGANI. A worker clocking in outside the declared programme creates a record the inspector sees before arriving. For businesses with seasonal third-country staff that means peak season overtime has to be declared as it happens, not at the end of the month.

The document check that protects the employer

Lawful residence does not imply a right to work. The permit type, printed on the document, determines whether and on what terms dependent employment is allowed. Category E permits give labour market access, student permits allow part-time work only, and digital nomad and financially independent person permits do not allow dependent employment in Greece at all.

The specific failure mode is accepting a printout from the application tracking system instead of the document itself. A status printout is not a work title, and an employer who accepted one in good faith carries the violation like anyone else. The same principle applies to a change of employer notification: while the service examines the file, employment is permitted but the risk sits with the employer if the request is ultimately refused. The limits of that interim period are set out in changing employer as a third-country worker in Greece.

The practice that keeps a file clean is plain: original passport and original permit on the table, a copy of both sides in the worker's file, name, surname, date of birth and passport number cross-checked, and a calendar reminder for every expiry date. The European method for document checks is set out in right to work verification.

A housing check often accompanies the declared work check on the same visit, and both files have to say the same thing about the same worker. Accommodation requirements are covered separately in worker accommodation in Greece. The employers page shows which of these steps Werklist takes on and which stay with the company.