May 8, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Georgiadis: changes to unemployment benefits are coming


The changes in unemployment benefits were indirectly announced by the Minister of Labor Adonis Georgiadis, speaking at the “OT FORUM Greek Entrepreneurship 2.0+”.

When asked if he was working on changing the amount of the benefit, the minister replied that “we have not made a decision,” adding, however: “I’m thinking about scenarios, I want to make it more flexible.” In any case, as he explained, “Unemployment benefits are paid by the employee himself. This is his money, which we manage responsibly.”

He mentioned “changes that will be included in the next Labor Department bill,” if not in January, then probably in February, “both on the issue of benefits and on the issue of phased solidarity contributions.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmFVZOiQDYk

Seasonal allowance
Adonis Georgiadis also noted that in the presented law, recipients of seasonal allowance do not lose it if in this quarter they decide to work up to 12 paid days, that is, on weekends, a provision that, as he explained, also solves the problem of finding staff in the tourism sector in this period.

Professional funds
In addition, the Minister of Labor emphasized that the tax for insured persons, which will be applied from now on, is “correct and good for insured persons.” According to him, “this is an incentive to stay for many years in a professional fund. If you stay for many years, then when you need it, you will have savings,” adding that “in Greece there is no savings culture” like in other European countries .

Greece 2.0
Speaking about the changes that have occurred in recent years as part of the “Greece 2.0” program, the Minister of Labor noted that the growth of the Greek economy is four times higher than the European average, which is inextricably linked with the reforms carried out. “We have the most flexible structure for creating a business in everything EU“,” he said, adding among other things that “banks are now much slower than the public sector. The public sector under the ND government has become faster and more flexible than the private sector.”

He also mentioned 27 laws aimed at simplifying bureaucracy, as well as a recent law that “makes the labor market in Greece very flexible.”

As the minister explained, answering a question about brain drain, “the concept of a single market that we have built [в ЕС], implies labor mobility and free movement of workers. It will happen – that’s the answer.” The question, he said, is whether we can be competitive as a country so that foreign talent doesn’t leave, doesn’t come back and doesn’t come. In this, he says, a lot of progress has been made, and rebrain Greece brought back workers, and the incentive was a reduced tax rate of 50% for 7 years.

“Talks about attracting talent from abroad are happening all over Europe. It’s a wider issue, not a local one. It’s a transnational competition and it’s tough compared to the Nordic countries… Greece will get a larger share of digital nomads in the coming years, with very fast internet.” He even announced “a very large investment in satellites and the Internet that, when done, will create extremely fast Internet, 1000 bits per second and beyond. Thanks to this and the incentives we are providing in the form of tax breaks, many more will come into the country of people”.



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