The number of reported workplace accidents in Greece reached 20,498 in 2025, the highest figure recorded since the Labor Inspectorate was established in 2000. The upward trajectory has been relentless: from 11,957 incidents in 2021, the number climbed to 14,388 in 2022, 14,920 in 2023, and 17,359 in 2024, representing an overall increase of more than 70% over four years.
Construction Leads in Fatalities
The Labor Inspectorate recorded 47 fatal workplace accidents in 2025, a figure that has remained broadly unchanged compared to prior years. However, independent research by the Federation of Associations of Employees of Technical Companies of Greece (OSATEE) tells a starkly different story: 201 workers lost their lives at work in 2025 when sectors and causes excluded from official statistics are factored in. The gap between the two figures speaks directly to the problem of underreporting.
Both sources agree that the construction sector remains the most dangerous. The Labor Inspectorate recorded 23 deaths on construction sites and in technical operations out of the total 47, while OSATEE’s research identified 50 fatalities in construction, the highest count of any sector.
Agricultural Deaths Largely Invisible
In OSATEE’s research, the agricultural sector ranked second with 48 fatalities, followed by significant losses in transport, tourism, manufacturing, and shipbuilding.
Deaths on farms are nearly invisible to the Labor Inspectorate, as the vast majority involve self-employed farmers. As a result, the inspectorate logged only two fatal accidents in agricultural work, amounting to 4% of the total. By contrast, OSATEE’s findings attribute nearly one in four workplace deaths to agriculture.
OSATEE: Undercounting of Human Losses Continues
“The publication of the Labor Inspectorate’s report on 2025 workplace accidents confirms the conclusions of OSATEE’s independent research,” Andreas Stoimenidis, president of OSATEE and of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), told in.gr.
He argued that the sharp rise in workplace accidents is entirely inconsistent with a stabilization of fatalities as presented by the inspectorate, and that it in fact reflects a real increase in deaths at work, as OSATEE’s data demonstrate. He also pointed to the exclusion of entire sectors, such as agriculture, and the significant undercounting in construction, as causes for serious concern. He added that the inspectorate’s report also omits traffic accidents occurring in the course of work, as well as deaths from medical causes linked to occupational factors such as heat stress.
Entire Sectors Left Out of Inspections
Stoimenidis further noted that the sharp increase in the number of inspections carried out is in no way consistent with the rise in accidents and fatalities, because inspections systematically exclude major sectors and tend to focus on low-risk businesses in large urban centers.
He also flagged a stark discrepancy between Greek and European data on agricultural fatalities. While Eurostat data for 2023 showed the agricultural sector accounting for 13% of fatal workplace accidents across Europe, Greece’s official statistics agency reported just 2%. He contrasted this with Cyprus, where authorities are showing significant reductions in both accidents and fatalities, including in agriculture.
Leading Causes of Death
According to the Labor Inspectorate’s data, falls from height were the leading cause of death, responsible for 23 fatalities. Vehicle strikes or rollovers accounted for 7 deaths, maintenance work for 6, and load handling operations for 5. Particularly alarming is the high share of foreign workers among the victims: of the 47 deaths, 15 involved foreign nationals, with 60% of fatal construction accidents affecting workers from abroad.
Accidents Span the Entire Economy
Although construction dominates in fatal cases, accidents overall are spread across the entire labor market. Retail accounted for 20% of all investigated incidents, followed by accommodation and hospitality at 8.9%, public administration and defense at 8.7%, construction at 7.5%, food manufacturing at 7%, wholesale trade at 6.3%, and healthcare at 4.7%. This pattern confirms that the problem is no longer confined to traditionally high-risk sectors but has spread throughout the economy as a whole.
A Shrinking Investigation Rate
In 2025, inspectorate units conducted 29,178 safety and health inspections, issued 3,981 penalties, and imposed fines totaling more than 5.2 million euros. Yet the rate at which accidents are actually investigated has collapsed: in 2022, 83% of workplace accidents were subject to investigation; by 2025 that figure had fallen to 38.3%, meaning more than six in ten incidents receive no substantive examination. This decline coincides with the inspectorate’s reorganization as an independent authority in 2023 and a change in how incidents are recorded.
Calls for Structural Reform
Faced with these figures, OSATEE has declared a “humanitarian crisis in the workplace” and is calling for structural intervention: strengthening the Labor Inspectorate, creating a unified coordination center, restoring meaningful social dialogue, forming a dedicated accident analysis task force, and establishing an Occupational Risk Insurance Body. The federation also cites data from the European Trade Union Confederation showing that heat-related deaths have risen 42% across the EU since 2000, with 22 such fatalities attributed to heat stress already recorded in Greece.
