GREECE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Semina Zavitsanou, Yannis Ragos, Maria Siraga and Dorianna Sarri, POTAMITISVEKRIS
The range of permissible disciplinary sanctions is exhaustively defined and may not exceed the follow - ing: • verbal or written warning; • reprimand; • fine of up to 25% of the daily wage or 1/25 of the monthly salary; and • compulsory suspension from work for up to ten days per calendar year, subject to specific condi - tions of repeated serious misconduct. It is expressly noted that internal employment regula - tions ratified pursuant to Legislative Decree 3789/1957 may not provide for dismissal as a disciplinary sanc - tion. This “architecture” has clear practical implications. In undertakings without ratified internal employment reg - ulation, any complaint and the corresponding inves - tigation cannot be grounded in a formal disciplinary procedure. Employers are therefore required to rely on managerial measures, grounding their actions in managerial right and the duty of care, and to design an internal investigation process that stands up to scru - tiny in terms of proportionality, equal treatment, and documentation. The Social Catalyst: The #MeToo Movement For many years, disciplinary law constituted the sole institutional tool for addressing problematic workplace conduct. The substantive change did not initially origi - nate from the legislature, but from society itself. The #MeToo movement emerged in late 2020 and gained significant momentum in early 2021, begin - ning in Greece with public allegations in the sports sector and subsequently spreading widely across the theatre and cultural sectors. Its significance does not lie merely in the volume or publicity of the allega - tions, but primarily in the fact that it opened a public channel of discourse: behaviours that had previously been silenced or treated as “grey areas” of working life began to be named and articulated. In the workplace, the impact was twofold. On the one hand, employees became more willing to speak out earlier and with greater clarity. On the other hand,
employers realised that the absence of policies and procedures does not constitute a neutral position, but rather a source of legal and reputational risk. The Legislative Response: Law 4808/2021 In this context, Law 4808/2021 was enacted, intro - ducing for the first time explicit and binding obliga - tions relating to the prevention and management of workplace violence and harassment. The law did not create the issue; it institutionalised it. A key innovation of the framework is the significant expansion of the circle of protected persons, cover - ing employees and individuals engaged regardless of their contractual status, including those provid - ing services under project contracts or independent services agreements, mandate arrangements, indi - viduals engaged through third-party service provid - ers, persons undergoing training (including interns and apprentices), volunteers, former employees, job applicants, and individuals working in the informal economy. At the same time, the law introduces a reversal of the burden of proof. Where the affected individual relies on factual elements capable of creating a presumption of violence or harassment, the employer is required to demonstrate either that the alleged conduct did not occur or that all necessary, appropriate, and pro - portionate preventive and protective measures were taken to safeguard employees’ personality rights. From 2021 onwards, the investigation of such inci - dents ceases to be a matter of internal “best prac - tice” and becomes a compliance mechanism, trig - gered whenever a complaint or sufficiently specific information exists. Companies – particularly those with established structures, policies, and trained per - sonnel – increasingly activate internal procedures in a more standardised manner (scope setting, interviews, interim measures, reporting). Employers are now required to implement policies and procedures that extend beyond “classic” cases of sexual harassment and encompass all forms of con - duct that may constitute moral (mobbing) or psycho - logical violence, bullying, humiliation, or infringement of dignity, as well as physical violence, including pro -
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