Photo: imerisia.gr
Salary increases in the range of 0.5% to 2% and bonuses depending on sales or profits are provided for in many collective and company agreements concluded for 2015 between employers and private sector workers. In this symbolic way, they put an end to a series of major cuts that have reached even 40% over the past three years.
Salary increases are provided for in four of the six collective agreements submitted to the Ministry of Employment from 1 January 2014 to date. These are collective agreements in the hospitality industry signed at the local level.
- in Heraklion, Crete, the planned increase is 2% and it will come into effect after 1 April this year,
- in Chania the increase is 0.5% after 1 January 2015 + 1% after 1 January 2016,
- in Lasithi - 1% after 1 January 2015,
- on Rhodes - 0.4% after 1 January 2015 and 1% after 1 January 2016.
The new contracts are an extension of the collective agreement of 31 December 2013 that was the first to provide for the 1% increase in basic salaries after the beginning of 2015 as well as for the smaller increases this year (0.5% for hotel workers in Chania and 0.4% for their counterparts in Rhodes). They reflect the positive forecasts for the development of the tourism industry in specific regions. At the same time, employers and employees in Athens and Thessaloniki have agreed to "freeze" and even reduce the salaries in some cases in 2014.
The collective agreements of different companies from different sectors provide for a 1% increase or bonus for employees on 1 January 2015 depending on the financial results for 2014. For example, if Athens Plaza hotel reported a gross profit in 2014, it would allocate the first 100,000 euro equally among all employees. If it reported a net profit in 2015, it would allocate 10% of it.
To compensate for the 6.1% salary reduction, oil company Kavala Oil AE would pay its employees one gross salary if its proceeds from the sale of crude oil and sulphur exceeded the amount of 80 million euro. It is expected that other companies will increase the established productivity bonuses as follows: L'Oreal Hellas by percentages based on sales, Greek Brewery with a bounty of 652 euro for its employees in Athens and 697 euro for their counterparts in the region of Lamia, the gas supply company in Thessaly region is about to introduce after 1 April 2015 a new allowance based on the performance evaluation of its employees, etc.
The company Athens Paper Industry has agreed with its employees for a 1.5% retroactive salary increase from 1 March 2014.
In parallel, after 1 July this year it is expected that all private sector employees who pay 1% contributions in favour of the fund allocating the family allowances of employees, often without having any benefit from this, will automatically receive an indirect 1% increase in their salaries. The cancellation of this obligation is a decision of the Ministry of Employment. Thus, for a gross salary of 1,500 euro, the salary difference or increase will be 15% per month.