The situation will become clearer in the next 24 hours, given that the deadline initially set for employers to electronically submit details of all their active employees expires on Friday.
In recent days, there has been an increase in registrations by employers and businesses of their employees in the ERGANI information system, as the two-month deadline for completing the process ends this coming Friday.
However, according to information from Economy Today, despite the increased registrations in recent days, the most likely scenario is that the Minister of Labour, Yiannis Panayiotou, will extend the process with a new decree. The goal is for the process to be completed smoothly, ensuring a clear and real-time picture of the labour market.
The final decision on whether an extension will be granted—which is currently the most likely scenario according to our sources—will be clarified in the next 24 hours. Based on the existing decree from the Minister of Labour, the deadline for employers to complete their registrations expires on 28 February.
The Minister’s decree was issued last December, following an amendment to the Law on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions, which the government introduced as part of measures to combat undeclared work. According to the decree, every employer is required to register the essential employment terms of all their employees in the ERGANI system “between 2 January 2025 and 28 February 2025.”
The decree also specifies the employment terms that must be recorded in the system, which has already been in use for registering new hires. In addition to employer and employee details, the required information includes the employee’s salary, working hours, annual leave entitlement, and other aspects such as whether they receive a cost-of-living allowance.
Since the process began, several technical issues have been identified and addressed, while many businesses have raised questions and concerns, which continued up until last week.
In this context, and with the deadline approaching on Friday, the Federation of Employers & Industrialists (OEB) last week urged the government to revoke the decree and issue a new one with a simplified framework. In its announcement, OEB justified its request by stating that “the Minister of Labour’s decree issued on 19/12/2024 regarding ERGANI, while officially intended for the registration of employees, imposes excessive obligations on businesses, requiring the submission of an enormous volume of data for each employee—much of which is irrelevant to the purpose of registration—causing confusion, excessive administrative burdens, and unnecessary costs for businesses.” OEB also warned that “any failure to complete this time-consuming process within the tight deadline (from early January to the end of February), as well as any errors in data entry, pose the risk of severe penalties.”
However, the possibility of revoking the relevant decree is not under consideration by the government or the Ministry of Labour, as the registration of employees was a primary objective of the administration and was implemented almost immediately after the change of government. Nevertheless, unless there is an unforeseen development, an extension is expected to be granted to allow employers to complete the process without issues or negative consequences for both individuals and legal entities.
The possibility of an extension was also hinted at by the Head of the Labour Relations Department ten days ago, stating that there is continuous communication with the Minister of Labour on the matter. He also noted that as of around 15 February, nearly 70,000 employees had been registered—approximately 20% of the expected total registrations.
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Source: Economy Today
