New Labour Framework: Digital Work Card & Challenges
(Article 22 of Law No. 5239/2025)

The digital work card constitutes, perhaps, the most significant reform in recent years as regards working time. It was introduced as a tool to enhance transparency and legality in employment relationships, with the primary aim of ensuring compliance with declared working hours, the payment of remuneration corresponding to the work actually performed, and the prevention of undeclared or under-declared work. Through its direct integration with the ERGANI II Information System, it enables real-time monitoring of changes in the working time of each employee. Its implementation, however, revealed a series of issues; the recent labour law addressed some of them.

Problems and Challenges

Since the commencement of its implementation, the Digital Work Card has been the subject of positive commentary as to its effectiveness and its role in detecting non-compliance; however, it has also been the subject of intense discussion regarding practical issues arising during its integration into the daily operation of undertakings. These challenges included the mass, simultaneous arrival of employees, minor deviations of a few minutes at the start and end of work, as well as errors or omissions by employees leading to single or even no time-stamp entries.

Within this context, the recent law introduced significant amendments (by virtue of Article 22 of Law No. 5239/2025 to Article 580 of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025), with the aim of improving the functionality of the system and enhancing legal certainty. Through these amendments, new, clearer rules are established for critical aspects of the use of the Digital Work Card, taking into account the particularities of various sectors of activity. The amendments focus on three main pillars: flexible arrival, preparation time, and the management of single time-stamp entries.

Institution of Flexible Arrival (para. 2A)

The new provision (Article 580 §2A of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025) concerns the possibility of agreement between employer and employee for flexible arrival of up to one hundred and twenty (120) minutes per day. Specifically, the employee is permitted to arrive at work and assume their duties at any time between the declared start of their working hours and the expiry of the one hundred and twenty (120)-minute window (or any shorter period that may be agreed), without giving rise to issues of non-compliance. The agreement must be concluded in writing, thereby ensuring the existence of a clear framework of cooperation.

This provision provides significant flexibility, primarily for employees: it not only alleviates situations of mass arrival at work, but also grants them the ability to regulate, to a considerable extent, their working schedule and personal time—according to their will and needs, within the agreed framework.

Preparation Time Before and After Work (§ 2B)

A significant element of the legislative intervention is the determination of how preparation time is to be treated (addition of §2B to Article 580 of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025). Preparation time is defined as the time between the employee’s arrival at the workplace and the assumption of their duties; it also includes the time from the end of work until the employee’s final departure from the workplace.

Preparation time, according to established case law, is not considered working time. As such (i.e. preparation time), it refers to the period required for actions such as entry into the premises, changing clothing, moving to the workstation, or washing after completion of work.

According to the new provision, preparation time is defined as:
• For the industrial sector, a period
of up to thirty (30) minutes before the start and up to thirty (30) minutes after the end of work.
• For all other sectors, a period of up to ten (10) minutes before the start and up to ten (10) minutes after the end of work.

During preparation time, no time-stamp entry of the digital work card is made. The card is stamped only after the completion of the preparation time, at the time of commencing work, or before the preparation time, at the time of departure from the workstation.

However, as provided in this provision, if during this period—namely the preparation time—an employee is found to be actually working, sanctions are imposed as prescribed by law (Article 572 of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025). Of critical importance in this context is the requirement that any act imposing a fine must be sufficiently reasoned. That is, all elements demonstrating that the employee had commenced work without stamping the digital work card after completion of the preparation stage or, conversely, had stamped the card for the end of work without being in the process of preparing to leave, must be specified. Such reasoning constitutes an important guarantee of the legality of administrative acts and, in this case, a strong safeguard against the imposition of arbitrary sanctions.

Single Time-Stamp Entries and the Threshold of Three (para. 2C)

The third amendment introduced by the law (addition of para. 2C to Article 580 of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025) concerns the now frequent phenomenon of single time-stamp entries; that is, cases where the employee stamps the digital work card only upon entry or only upon departure from the workplace.

Under the new legislative provision, more than three (3) single time-stamp entries per month per employee, where attributable to negligence or oversight on the part of the employee, constitute grounds for inspection by the Labour Inspectorate. Naturally, cases where single entries are justified by the nature or organisation of working time, force majeure or objective impossibility are excluded. Cases of intentional omission by employees are, unfortunately, not addressed, nor has even a minimal financial penalty for “negligent” employees been introduced.

Assessment of the Legislative Intervention

The amendments introduced by the recent law (to Article 580 of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025) constitute a significant effort to strike a balance between the need for accurate recording of actual working time and the practical implementation of the system by undertakings subject to it.

The introduction of flexible arrival, the precise determination of preparation time, and the regulation of single time-stamp entries establish a clear regulatory framework and reduce the risk of disproportionate fines for minor, non-material omissions.

The Remaining Issue; the Proposal

It must, however, be emphasised that one issue remains: a not insignificant number of employees tend to arrive slightly before the start of working hours (e.g. because the bus arrived early or “to have their coffee in peace”—not uncommon phenomena) and/or to depart slightly after the end of working hours (e.g. “to finish something they started”). The problem is exacerbated, inter alia, by delays in stamping the digital work card due to the simultaneous, mass arrival or departure of employees. This results in deviations from the declared working hours, gives rise to an obligation to pay additional work remuneration, and may lead to the imposition of fines for essentially non-existent (or not attributable to the undertaking) infringements.

The above issue is, unfortunately, not resolved by the provision for flexible arrival agreements, nor by the provision of preparation time before the commencement of work.

For the definitive resolution of the issue, it is proposed that paragraph 2D be added to Article 580 of Presidential Decree No. 62/2025, providing that: “Minor deviations between the digitally declared working hours and the time-stamp entries of the digital work cards of employees shall be accepted. Such deviations may amount to fifteen (15) minutes before the start and fifteen (15) minutes after the end of the working hours per employee. The said permissible deviation between the digitally declared working hours and the time-stamp entries of the digital work cards shall not give rise to claims for or against the employee or the employer.”.

The digital work card indeed constitutes an achievement for employees, for undertakings that opt for compliance, and for the State which seeks the enforcement of legislation, the tackling of undeclared or under-declared work, and the combating of contribution evasion. The recent legislative interventions and improvements relating to the digital work card move towards balancing the need for strict compliance with the existing regulatory framework and the management of practical issues identified through its implementation. However, as not all related issues have been addressed, further legislative intervention—such as that proposed above—is considered necessary. We look forward to a forthcoming legislative amendment.

Stavros Koumentakis

Managing Partner

Koumentakis and Associates Law Firm