An overview and critical evaluation of the most important changes brought by the new Labour Law 5053/2023 – Parallel employment
(Article by Elianna Maratou, Associate, ROKAS Athens published in Lexology on February 2, 2024)
An overview and critical evaluation of the most important changes brought by the new Labour Law 5053/2023, including its practical consequences on Labour relations.
There are always three parties involved in Labour law issues: employees, employers, and society as a whole. Any ideal regulation therefore seeks to compromise in the best possible way their often conflicting interests. For this reason, the evolutions in the field of Labour Law are always at the centre of discussions.
The recent Labour Law 5053/2023 dated 26 September 2023 introduces some radical changes in the Greek legal system, mainly in the field of individual Labour Law. This Law transposes, among others, the Directive 2019/1152, the purpose of which is to improve working conditions by promoting more transparent and predictable employment while ensuring labour market adaptability.
One of the most noteworthy changes, which raises an issue of compatibility with the rest of the Greek legal system, was introduced in the provisions on parallel employment.
The previous legislation, the current labour law 5053/2023 and the provisions of Directive
2019/1152
Ιn accordance with the previous legislation and in particular with the Article 189 of the Individual Labour Law Code entitled: “Prohibition of employment during rest time”, the employer shall not be permitted to employ on the same working day employees or workers who have worked in another factory or at another workplace for the entire legal daily working time. It is only permitted to employ workers who worked on the same day for other employers for less hours than those specified in this Chapter, but only for the time required to complete the statutory maximum daily working time.