“Your Christmas bonus will be deposited into your account this month,” the manager of a small restaurant in Petroupoli, a suburb of Athens, told 20-year-old Dimitris. But before he could smile, the manager’s tone turned cold: “Don’t even think about keeping it. We’ve been clear on this from the start.”
Dimitris has been working at this restaurant since April 2025, so he already knew he would have to hand the bonus back the moment it hit his bank account. “When I first started, my employer told me that in this place we don’t actually keep the Christmas bonus or the holiday allowance,” he tells To Vima. “The money goes into my account when it’s supposed to, and then I return it in cash.”
Dimitris’ case is far from unique. Increasingly, young people—trapped in what many refer to as a “labor Middle Ages”—face threats and intimidation at work, especially in sectors like catering and retail. These practices reappear whenever inspections ease, only to retreat again when the legal framework tightens. Most young workers have few options: unless they have family in Athens or friends who can support them financially, they often feel forced to surrender basic labor rights just to keep their jobs.
“I’ll get it under the table”
With the start of the holiday season, demand for staff in shops and restaurants surges. Employers, seeking to meet market needs, push for extra workdays. “On paper, I’m hired for a five-day week, but all of December I’ll be working six days—same as everyone else,” says Stamatis, 28, who works at a clothing store in central Athens. He’ll be working extra days without receiving the social insurance stamps legally owed to him. “I’ll get the money,” he says, “but it’ll be under the table, and maybe with some delay.”
Violations of labor law are recorded frequently and officially, according to Greece’s Labor Inspection Authority. From January to October 31, 2025, a total of 67,942 inspections were carried out, resulting in 14,350 penalties for employers who failed to comply with the law—amounting to €42,362,415 in fines.
What does To Vima’s reporting show? The biggest problems in recent years revolve around undeclared labor and under-declared labor, where part of the employee’s salary is paid officially and the rest “black”—in cash, off the books. In the last month alone, 1,079 violations were recorded, with €12,526,500 in fines—nearly on par with previous months. Undeclared workers are most commonly found in the hospitality sector, followed by retail.
Meanwhile, inspections reveal many cases where employees are officially registered as part-time but actually work full-time hours. Melina, a university student, shares her experience: “I’m in my third year now, and I work at a café to cover my expenses. It’s my only option because I can work nights and still attend the mandatory labs for my degree. So we made an arrangement with the shop’s accountant: I’d get a bit more money, but they’d declare fewer hours. I needed the income, so I agreed, even though my parents thought it was unacceptable that I wasn’t earning full insurance credits.”
“What annoys me most,” says Stamatis, “is that I had to reach 28 years old before being paid properly for Sundays and public holidays. I’ve been working since I was 18, and this year is the first time I got what the law actually guarantees—only because I hinted I would quit otherwise. But an 18-year-old won’t demand that; they don’t have the confidence yet. It’s disgraceful to exploit kids who are just trying to find their footing, all while giving them back-breaking workloads.”
“We’ve simply accepted it,” says Vasia, 23, who works in a restaurant in Alimos, a coastal suburb of Athens. In her previous job, the employer kept the tips collected each day to distribute among staff at the end of the month. “It was my first job, and I was too embarrassed to bring it up. They made it seem completely normal—but at the end of the month, the amount we received was nowhere near what we had actually earned.”
“It’s just the reality,” says 22-year-old Dimitris. “We know that until we get our degree and can work in the field we care about, we’ll have to adapt. We look the other way because there’s no alternative. Before working in catering, when I had just started university, I sent my CV to several companies for junior positions, but everywhere they told me they needed a degree or experience. In catering, it was much easier; a friend recommended me and within two or three days, I had already started working.”
Complaints under review
According to Haralambos Vourtsis, Deputy Governor of the Labor Inspection Authority, “These abusive practices—long known in Greece—are not only a blatant and unacceptable breach of labor rights but also an attack on the dignity of young workers. As an Independent Authority responsible for legality in the labor market and the protection of workers’ rights, we are determined to intensify targeted inspections, making full use of the new tools at our disposal.”
He adds: “Our experienced staff responds immediately to any complaint— even anonymous—filed with the Labor Inspection Authority. Inspections will ramp up during the holiday season.”
